IRIN
MYANMAR: Mass clean-up brings confidence over water supplies
24 September 2008


THONEGWA, 24 September 2008 (IRIN) - One of the chief concerns among aid 
workers in the wake of Cyclone Nargis was polluted ponds, the only 
source of drinking water for many villagers.

However, Lwin Maung, in Thonegwa, in Yangon Division, told IRIN he was 
confident that despite the approaching end to this year's rainy season, 
residents had already cleaned and refilled enough ponds to provide the 
household needs for the village's 700-plus inhabitants for the next six 
months.

Many ponds became contaminated in May when Cyclone Nargis struck. A 3m 
high tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area with sea-water and 
debris, prompting strong warnings from health officials.

'Unless traditional potable water ponds are cleaned and refilled in 
time, people will have no option to get clean water during the dry 
season as the water ponds are their traditional potable water source,' 
one official from the World Health Organization (WHO) told IRIN at the 
time, citing concerns over water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea and 
dysentery.

According to estimates, 1,500 ponds - 13 percent of ponds in Yangon 
division and 43 percent of ponds in the badly affected Ayeyarwady Delta 
- were contaminated.

In July, the UN reported that 74 percent of people in the affected areas 
had inadequate access to clean water, with rainwater collection seen as 
critical in reducing the risk of disease outbreaks.

Government records show there were at least 4,550 water ponds in the 
affected areas (1,578 ponds in Yangon; 2,972 ponds in Ayeyarwady). Yet 
even before Nargis, securing clean drinking water had been a challenge.

Few people have access to piped water, with most residents reliant on 
rainwater harvesting tanks, communal rainwater ponds, open wells, tube 
wells and rivers.

And though access to water did not present a serious problem during this 
year's rainy season (from mid-May until end-October), some parts of the 
storm-ravaged region still faced shortages.

In a bid to address that, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), with its 
partners, has been working to clean up contaminated ponds, as well as 
provide water-storage containers.

According to its report [see: 
http://www.unicef.org/eapro/120day_report_final.pdf] released this 
month, UNICEF provided 30,000 plastic water-storage containers (90l), 
more than 40,000 jerry cans (10-20l) and 130,000 plastic buckets (14l).

It also provided water purification chemicals to approximately 200,000 
people, along with more than 22,000 bottles of waterguard, a water 
purification agent, and 4.5 million chlorine tablets.

Successful intervention

According to UNICEF, to date some 1,500 contaminated ponds have been 
cleaned up, as well as another 300 as part of a preventative measure.

Based on that, Waldemar Pickardt, chief of water and environmental 
sanitation at UNICEF/Myanmar, told IRIN the agency now had enough time 
to prepare to provide people with adequate water should the ponds run 
out during the dry season.

The agency had installed eight water treatment plants in Bogale, Pyapon, 
Labutta, Mawgyun and Dala in the cyclone-affected area, each capable of 
producing between 4,000 and 15,000 litres of safe water per hour.

Moreover, UNICEF was able to relocate those water treatment plants to 
other areas at risk of a water shortage during the dry season.

'We will relocate water treatment plants by the river or stream where 
fresh water is available,' said Pickardt. 'These machines will treat the 
fresh water for the needy cyclone-hit families.'

As for the ponds that still need refilling, weather indicators suggest 
lower than normal precipitation this year.

Labutta, which was badly affected by the cyclone, received about 43cm of 
rain in July, against 80cm in the same month of 2007, according to 
government figures.

The August figure was 46.2cm compared with 64.3cm of rainfall in the 
same month last year.


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