Burma cyclone help still needed one year on

Hundreds of thousands of people in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta still need help, the UN and aid agencies warned today, a year after a deadly cyclone Nargis killed about 140,000.Last year, more than two million people were left homeless on May 2-3 by the cyclone that ripped across the fertile delta of the Irrawaddy causing a humanitarian disaster on a scale comparable to the Asian tsunami. Yet the amounts of aid being requested are just a fraction of what was spent on countries like Indonesia after the tsunami - and not much is forthcoming yet. Reconstruction - as opposed to emergency relief - has barely begun.

Hundreds of thousands of people are living without adequate food and shelter in Myanmar a year after a deadly cyclone ravaged large swathes of the country, the UN and aid agencies said. They said a fifth of those whose homes were destroyed by Cyclone Nargis were still living under tarpaulin, while at least 250,000 people would require food handouts until the end of 2009 at the earliest. "Considerable needs remain," said the United Nations in a statement, as it sought £458m to fund another three years of assistance. In late May UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon brokered a deal that allowed a tripartite group of officials from the UN, Myanmar's government to coordinate aid deliveries to the delta. But long-term shelter, cash to replenish lost assets and further food supplies are all critical to the future survival of the delta's residents, aid workers said. "In rural places where the cyclone hit first and hardest, frankly very little recovery has taken place," said a children’s aid worker in Yangon told Agence France Presse news agency.

The UN estimates 10.2 million dollars in funding is urgently required for shelter materials before the monsoon season begins, including about 50 storm shelters. One million people have received 70,000 tonnes of food aid, but the World Food Programme said it was currently still feeding 350,000 people and that most of those would require handouts until at least the end of the year. An initial UN appeal for 477 million dollars in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone has been 66 percent funded. But little money has been spent on providing cash or credit to replenish lost cattle, seed and other farming and fishing materials needed to restore livelihoods.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children