Myanmar Cyclone Survivors Face Disease Risk as Aid Trickles In

from Bloomberg

By Demian McLean and Paul Tighe

Survivors of the Myanmar cyclone that may have killed as many as 60,000 people were at risk of cholera and other infectious diseases as the United Nations urged the military government to allow relief agencies to start work.

More than 1 million people may be homeless after Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the country formerly known as Burma on May 3. Teams from Doctors Without Borders found 80 percent of houses damaged and meter-high flood (3-foot) waters in some areas of Daala and Twante townships, where 300,000 people lived.

``Under these circumstances, infectious diseases such as cholera can spread easily,'' the group said in a statement.

The United Nations called on Mynamar's military rulers to allow international aid workers to begin relief operations as the prospect of a humanitarian disaster looms. Aid officials said the number of dead will rise without quick distribution of drinking water, food and medicine.

``We are in close contact with the government on the response,'' said Chris Kaye of the UN World Food Program. ``Much more cooperation will be required.'' The WFP is distributing the 800 metric tons of food stocks it holds in Yangon, the former capital, Kaye said in an e-mail from Thailand.

Myanmar's state television reported that 22,000 people died and more than 40,000 are missing since the southern Irrawaddy delta that feeds into the Andaman Sea was swamped by a surge of water as high as 12 feet, the UN's IRIN news agency said.

`Wiped Out'

``People are expecting that it will be more than 100,000 killed, especially because the delta region that was hit hardest is a very poor region mostly populated by the working class,'' said Bo Hla-Tint, a former member of parliament and a spokesman for the country's Rockville, Maryland-based government-in-exile. ``In some areas whole towns are wiped out.''

The U.K. government has pledged 5 million pounds ($9.78 million) in aid for the former British colony and is ready to offer more, said a spokesman for the Department for International Development. The U.S. offered $3.25 million, and Australia pledged $2.8 million toward providing clean water and shelters, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said today.

Other countries offering aid include Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, China and the European Union.

Myanmar's military rulers are ``suspicious of outsiders and very sensitive to foreign influences,'' Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. ``They admitted to 22,000'' people killed, she said. ``I believe the figure is higher than that. Somebody said 150,000 and I don't think that's untrue.''

Sunken Ships

The organization, set up by the Open Society Institute, a New York-based pro-democracy body founded by billionaire investor George Soros, says it aims to raise international awareness of conditions in Myanmar.

``The port, as we understand it, is blocked or even closed because of sunken ships following the cyclone, and also damage from that cyclone,'' Richard Horsey, spokesman for the United Nations disaster response unit, said in a telephone interview from Bangkok.

Fuel supplies will be hit, Horsey said, ``because Myanmar has to import not only most of its diesel but its compressed gas for cooking as well, and that normally comes in through'' the port at Yangon.

International Sanctions

The Red Cross had also hoped to send supplies via ship containers.

``We were planning to put quite a bit of stuff on the water,'' John Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, today. The ship ``may take up to a couple of weeks to move,'' Sparrow said.

The country of 47.8 million people is regularly hit by cyclones that form in the Bay of Bengal between April and November. It has been under international sanctions since the military rejected the results of elections in 1990.

Such measures have restricted economic growth in Myanmar, which had proven gas reserves of 17.7 trillion cubic feet at the end of 2005, or 0.3 percent of the world's total, according to BP Plc, and resources including teak, zinc, copper and precious stones. Almost 33 percent of people live below the poverty line, according to U.S. government data.

Transparency International last year ranked Myanmar as the most corrupt nation in the world along with Somalia.

`Very Relieved'

Myanmar today gave permission for the Red Cross to send a plane load of supplies from Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, Sparrow said. The flight will deliver 300 shelter kits containing tarpaulins, mosquito nets, water, and cooking utensils, he said. The Red Cross has 20,000 more kits in its Kuala Lumpur warehouse, the Geneva-based organization said in a statement. ``We're very relieved,'' Sparrow said.