IRIN
MYANMAR: Cyclone assessment reveals critical food, water shortages
25 June 2008


BANGKOK, 25 June 2008 (IRIN) - An estimated 46 percent of families in 
Myanmar's Ayeyarwady delta have less than two days' worth of food, 
according to an initial post-disaster assessment.

The news underscores the urgent need to bring more food into the region 
almost eight weeks after Cyclone Nargis ravaged the area, leaving 
138,000 people dead or missing.

The discovery of significant household food shortages is just one of the 
crucial early findings of an ongoing assessment of the disaster relief 
effort by the UN, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and 
Myanmar government, released on 24 June.

While the data collected from 10 days of field research was still being 
collated and analysed, Richard Blewitt, project manager for the Village 
Tract Assessment, said it showed survivors of Cyclone Nargis were 
"living precariously".

"The findings tell a story of a shaken rural economy," he told IRIN from 
Yangon, the former Burmese capital. "People are rebuilding, but slowly. 
They are on the edge, and there is a need for continued relief," he 
said.

The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) is intended to give both 
international aid agencies and donor governments a credible, independent 
picture of the extent of the damage and the humanitarian relief effort 
so far.

In addition to the Village Tract Assessment - which focuses on how 
survivors have been getting by since the storm - the final report, due 
next month, will include a tally of the economic and physical losses 
from the disaster.

More than 300 people - including international and national staffers of 
the UN, NGOs, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and ASEAN, with Myanmar 
civil servants and local civil society volunteers - were involved in 
what is being described as the first systematic look at the results of 
the disaster since Nargis struck on 2 and 3 May. The Myanmar government 
assigned 20 staff members from 18 different ministries to join the 
assessment effort.

"It is a snapshot of the emergency and early recovery needs on the 
ground across the 30 most affected townships," Blewitt said.

In addition, the assessment is intended to serve as a common reference 
point for discussions between the Myanmar government and international 
aid agencies on how best to help an estimated 2.4 million survivors 
rebuild their lives.

"What we are trying to do is identify priority needs, create a common 
information base to share between the sectors, and provide baseline 
information for future monitoring and evaluation," Blewitt said.

Water shortages

Food shortages were just part of the preliminary findings, with 60 
percent of households reporting inadequate access to clean drinking 
water, while 22 percent reported being under psychological stress.

The study has also found that 59 percent of homes in the delta were 
severely damaged in the storm and subsequent tidal surge.

And while the region's resilient villagers have rebuilt some form of 
shelter for themselves, those are mostly fragile bamboo structures, with 
an estimated lifespan of just two years, far worse than the sturdier 
wooden houses they had before.

"They are building back worse, not building back better," Blewitt said.

Data gathering

To understand the conditions of delta residents, 32 five-member teams 
from various organisations this month fanned across the 30 
worst-affected townships, which were divided into 128 identical 
quadrants.

The field teams visited the village closest to the centre of every 
quadrant, and then surveyed at least two other villages nearby.

To reach these often remote locales, the surveyors travelled by car, 
motorcycle, boat and helicopter. They also walked long distances to 
reach some villages accessible only by foot.

In each village, the teams conducted 10 household questionnaires, 
interviews with a few so-called "key informants", including community 
leaders, and focus group discussions to gather data.

Survivors were questioned on how much food they had in store, their 
post-cyclone livelihoods situation, how they planned to meet their 
families' daily needs, and whether they had access to medical care.


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