Burma braced for more rain

May 12 2008 Media Wales

Survivors of the Burmese cyclone are bracing themselves for further torrential rain today as aid agencies warn of an impending humanitarian crisis.

Storm warnings have been issued for the region despite large swathes of the country still lying submerged under putrid floodwater from the initial cyclone.

The Burmese government has come under sustained international pressure as aid agencies warn that the death toll following the cyclone could reach 1.5 million.

Further heavy deluges will hamper the progression of embryonic aid efforts which are only now starting to reach the more remote areas.

Oxfam said the stricken country faces a public health catastrophe unless clean water and sanitation was quickly provided.

The military junta has been criticised for not allowing emergency supplies and skilled aid workers into the secretive South East Asian country quickly enough.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday blamed the “malign neglect” of the Burmese regime for turning the disaster into a “humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions”.

Aid agencies fear the crisis could deteriorate further with rain storms set to lash the already deluged south of the country for the next few days.

Save the Children spokeswoman Kathryn Rawe said huge storms were expected to strike Burma early today.

Speaking from Thailand, she said: “Storm warnings have been issued to last until May 15th.

“It’s feared that a month’s-worth of rain could fall in just two days.

“The storms are not expected to be on the same scale as the cyclone, it’s going to make bad conditions 100 times worse.

“People already displaced by the previous cyclone are going to be left without any shelter.”

She said that up to 5,000 square kilometres of the country still lay under water.

It is feared the sluggish response to the crisis could result in a death toll dwarfing the devastating Boxing Day tsunami which killed 250,000 people.

An estimated 100,000 have already perished in the disaster but Oxfam warned this figure could multiply 15-fold.

Aid is continuing to trickle into the country, with the Red Cross confirming a total of seven flights containing emergency supplies will have landed in the capital Rangoon by tonight, taking the total number of Red Cross flights to 10.

Charity and disaster response organisations are finally starting to reach the far flung stretches of the Irrawaddy Delta in Southern Burma which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis which struck more than a week ago.

Survivors have begun to flood into towns after fleeing their shattered villages as they desperately look for food and water.

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander confirmed yesterday that a British government assessment team had been allowed into the country.

And in a further move suggesting that the Burmese regime was becoming more open to foreign help, the Thai Foreign Minister Dr Noppadon Pattam announced he would meet his Burmese counterpart in Rangoon tomorrow to discuss allowing more aid into the country.

But agencies complained visa restrictions on specialist staff and long clearance times on aid flown into the country is impeding their efforts to save lives.

In a further setback yesterday, a Red Cross boat carrying emergency supplies in the Irrawaddy Delta was damaged after hitting a submerged obstacle under the waterline.

The UN estimates that two million people have been displaced by the cyclone with the majority left without shelter and clean water.

Large parts of the country’s infrastructure have been shattered, with bloated corpses and the rotting remains of cattle littering the countryside.

The huge storm surge left behind filthy pools of stagnant water, creating the perfect breeding conditions for mosquitos carrying malaria and dengue fever.

Sarah Ireland, Oxfam’s regional director for South East Asia, said: “With the likelihood of 100,000 or more killed in the cyclone there are all the factors for a public health catastrophe which could multiply that death toll by up to 15 times in the coming period.

“In the Boxing Day tsunami, 250,000 lost their lives in the first few hours but we did not see an outbreak of disease because the host governments and world mobilised a massive aid effort to prevent it happening.

“We have to do the same for the people of Burma. We have the skills and expertise to save lives. We are here to help.”

An Oxfam spokesman said the risk of outbreaks of disease was growing dramatically.

He said: “In Burma, people’s resistance to disease is weakened daily because of a lack of food and shelter, exposure to the elements and drinking surface water that is more than likely contaminated with human waste.

“This creates an effective breeding ground for diseases such as cholera, typhoid and shigella taking hold.”

Mr Miliband criticised Burma’s response to the disaster.

In a stinging attack he told BBC1’s The Politics Show: “A natural disaster is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions in significant part because of the malign neglect of the regime.

“The basic point is that the scale of the response inside the country is so far inadequate to the scale of the disaster.”

Despite the burgeoning crisis, the Burmese authorities pushed ahead with a referendum over the weekend.

Mr Miliband labelled the decision to proceed with the vote as “bizarre”

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) an umbrella group for the organisations dealing with the crisis said that donations of around £5 million had now been made for an appeal fund for the crisis.