18th May 2008 - Action Against Hunger (ACF) has been present in Burma since 1994. 22 international aid workers and more than 300 national staff are currently providing aid to the survivors of Cyclone Nargis. Last week ACF teams in Burma carried out a needs assessment in the Bogale region, one of the worst hit areas. The survey found the situation in the Bogale district extremely alarming in the immediate and medium term.
As aid agency ACF continues to send convoys carrying relief supplies to distribute to the survivors, its teams on the ground are increasingly concerned about the scale of the needs in the affected areas, the small number of humanitarian actors on the ground and the rapid deterioration of the situation. 400,000 people are living in the Bogale district alone (spread across 527 villages and the town of Bogale, where 50,000 people are living). ACF is one of the few aid agencies implementing relief programmes in this district.
Preliminary results of the needs assessment:
Nutrition / Food Security
The main priority of all survivors participating in the survey is food: all day long, people are looking for food and for a way of cooking the food they find. For over 15 days, the survivors have mainly been feeding themselves with wild fruits and vegetables and mouldy rice which they are trying to dry.
The price of rice has quadrupled since the cyclone struck the country (a bag now costs 60,000 Kyat / 60 dollars)
72% of people surveyed only eat twice a day, in contrast to three times a day before the cyclone.
86% of people surveyed eat damaged rice and eat half the quantity they used to eat per meal
One week after the Cyclone struck, people already said that they were starving.
In view of this situation, survivors are adapting coping mechanisms which can further deteriorate their situation in the near future such as taking very high loans and selling the few belongings they still have.
The economy has been destroyed: most fishermen have lost all their fishing equipment (boats, fishing nets..) and farmers have lost their seeds, tools and buffalos.
Families and traders lost most of their food reserves.
In summary, ACF teams fear that a nutritional crisis is looming, especially considering the difficulties facing aid agencies in bringing large quantities of relief supplies to the survivors.
Water and Sanitation
75% of survivors collect water from ponds which have been contaminated with salt, debris, human and animal cadavers, especially in the rural areas.
95% of latrines have been destroyed, leading to fecal contamination of water sources.
Most survivors lost everything including containers which they used to collect and store water. They can therefore not collect rain water which would be more suitable for drinking than the contaminated water from the ponds.
Cases of diarrhoea are being reported to ACF teams on the ground and the number of cases risks increasing. There is a high risk of malaria and pneumonia if access to sanitation and basic care is not quickly restored. 23% of people surveyed say that they are sick. Water-related disease can quickly lead to malnutrition.
Despite these constraints, aid is reaching the survivors
Logistics remain a major challenge, especially now that the monsoon rains have arrived. The few bridges that were passable can no longer be crossed meaning it is impossible to reach the survivors via roads. ACF teams are using two boats which can carry 20 to 25 tons of cargo each. These two boats are transporting relief supplies from Rangoon to Bogale and allow for greater access to the most isolated areas. Tens of tons of rice, water, water purification tablets and emergency kits have thus been distributed to the survivors and continue to be distributed.
As Richard Poncet, a water engineer with ACF in Burma explains : "My main concern is safe drinking water and our first priority therefore is to enable households to store water. Survivors are mainly using surface water as drinking water, which increases the risk of diarrheal diseases. With the beginning of the rainy season, it is important to collect the rain water. We are distributing plastic sheetings that can be used as temporary roofs or folded up as a container to collect the rain water. Yet ACF's programmes not only concentrate on improving access to water. A hungry person does not care about the water he/she drink. His/her priority is to have something to eat. People, especially when sick, must eat a balanced diet and drink safe water. We therefore have to provide all our relief supplies as quickly as possible."
Last week, ACF sent a first charter plane to Burma. Another plane carrying 12 tons of containers, jerry cans, water purification kits has also arrived. Both cargos were unloaded in Rangoon and are on their way to Bogale. ACF is able to continue providing urgent relief to the survivors in the Delta. However, these supplies are still largely insufficient to respond to the scale of the needs.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Action Against Hunger has worked in Myanmar since 1993. Before Cyclone Nargis struck, 15 international and 300 local aid workers were already on the ground providing assistance to over 140,000 people. Programmes include water and sanitation, nutrition and food security activities.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) is an international humanitarian organisation specialised in tackling hunger and malnutrition with projects in 43 countries. Its teams are directly helping over 4 million people worldwide. Action Against Hunger (UK registered charity no. 1047501) is part of the ACF International Network. www.aahuk.org
For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Christine Kahmann: +44 20 8293 6197 / c.kahmann@aahuk.org
Sophie Noonan: +44 20 8293 6139 / s.noonan@aahuk.org
Out of office hours: +44 79 8332 6556
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
