6 June 2008As thousands of survivors in Myanmar face the real danger of food shortages and disease, 33 international Red Cross aid
workers have gained access to the country to provide life-saving support.The experienced team have brought vital expertise in building shelters, constructing water and sanitation
facilities, providing healthcare and distributing urgently needed food and emergency supplies. Four weeks on from Cyclone Nargis, illness is on the rise and more
preventive health measures are needed to avert another disaster. The crisis has already claimed the lives of 78,000 people and 2.4 million people have been directly affected.Emergency
reliefSo far, the Red Cross has reached more than 228,000 beneficiaries with water, food and relief items – including more than 189,000 in the badly hit Irrawaddy Delta. An average of
2,800 families per day are receiving help. Sixty-four Red Cross emergency relief flights have landed at Yangon airport, carrying more than 900 tonnes of relief items. In Dedaye, the Myanmar
Red Cross' water unit is producing 70,000 litres of clean drinking water, reaching at least 5,000 people on a daily basis. Three more water units have been deployed which, once operational, will
produce 1 million litres of clean water – enough for 600,000 people – every day.Urgent actionThe need for urgent action has been made even more pressing by the
region's rainy season, which has recently started to intensify. The worsening weather will leave Myanmar's stricken population exposed to potentially catastrophic combination of disease and
malnutrition. Mallu Oraby, a health team delegate, said: "It would be dangerous to conclude that, since no epidemic disease has occurred so far, the danger is subsiding. All our experience
tells us it will not."The hazards remain and, in the pouring rain that will be with us for months, every effort must be made to prevent a second wave of disaster."Playing its part in
the global response, the British Red Cross has sent an emergency logistics flight – carrying two 4x4 vehicles, a forklift truck and warehouse tent – to help Red Cross delegates at Yangon
airport speed the distribution of aid.More about our Myanmar responseCyclone Nargis in picturesMyanmar information
sheet
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A man walks through a flooded street in Jakarta June 4, 2008. A tidal wave of over 2 metres flooded parts of Jakarta overnight as the city government and citizens raced ...
