Six months after Nargis, continued support still needed

Posted on November 3, 2008
Filed Under Burma news |

Six months after Cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc on the Irrawaddy Delta, continued support is still needed to help survivors.
According to Bishow Parajuli, the UN’s Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator there are still urgent needs, such as the need to prevent water scarcity. He said, “Increased support is required to restore livelihoods and provide sustainable shelter.”
The UN’s Revised Flash Appeal for US$484,5 million is now 53 percent funded. But, Parajuli says the agriculture sector is critically under-funded, with only 16 percent of the funding requirements met.
Meanwhile, Liz Hughes, Recovery Manager for the British Red Cross, who is based in Burma and is leading the recovery efforts of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said, “The sheer impact of the devastation means that the recovery operation is enormous. Our cyclone recovery programmes in Myanmar will continue until April 2011, three years after Nargis made landfall, because of the scale and scope of the rebuilding effort.”
And, yesterday WorldVision warned of the need for continued international involvement. In a statement, the group said, “Six months on, real progress can be shown in the lives of those affected. It is clear that this country needs a renewed commitment by the international community to continue to support the survivors of Cyclone Nargis.”
WorldVision says that their recent assessment showed less than two-thirds of those surveyed had access to safe, clean drinking water. One third reported reducing the number of meals eaten in a day within the past month, illustrating the continued food insecurity, still faced by many of those affected. And up to 30 percent of children aged five to 11 were not enrolled in school at the time of the assessment, and of children 12 to 17 more than half were not.
According to the junta, 84,500 people died in the cyclone, which was Burma’s worst ever natural disaster. The UN estimates 2.4 million people were affected by the storm.

Comments

One Response to “Six months after Nargis, continued support still needed”

  1. Shane on November 4th, 2008 10:27 am

    testing 

Leave a Reply




« Back to text comment