14 May 2008
Burma Cyclone Survivors Need World’s Help
U.S. official urges Burma’s leaders to let aid workers save lives
Washington -- Nearly two weeks after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma, more than a million survivors remain in desperate need of water, food and shelter, says a top U.S. official, who urged the country’s military rulers to let more aid workers in to save lives.
“The extent of the devastation is vast and the relief efforts require the cooperation and coordination of the entire international humanitarian aid community,” says Henrietta Fore, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Fore briefed reporters in Washington May 14 after returning from the region, where she joined Admiral Timothy Keating on the first of three U.S. relief flights allowed by Burmese authorities to land in Rangoon.
Since May 13, Burma’s leaders have allowed a total of seven international aid flights into the country, carrying relief supplies sufficient for only 100,000 people, she said, even though an estimated 1.5 million Burmese have been affected by the disaster. (See “First U.S. Disaster Aid Shipment Arrives in Burma.”)
Burmese officials briefed Fore and Keating on their response efforts, highlighting challenges delivering potable water, food and other goods into remote areas cut off by the May 2 cyclone. A lack of boats for aid deliveries into coastal communities is complicating response efforts, officials said. There also are challenges in providing shelter for a large number of displaced families left homeless by the storm, they said.
“There have been people who have been without water, without food for days now,” Fore said. “We are just focused on trying to save lives.”
Forecasters are tracking a new tropical depression in the region, likely to pour another week’s worth of rain on Burma’s already waterlogged coast, Fore said, further slowing aid deliveries and compounding flooding.
While Burmese officials have started issuing visas for aid workers from neighboring countries, Fore urged them to approve access for a USAID disaster assistance response team (DART) waiting across the border in Thailand. The team’s members have expertise in sanitation, water and logistics that could help Burma’s leaders get more aid delivered more efficiently and save lives from infectious diseases and waterborne illnesses common after storms.
“There is an enormous humanitarian urgency to this effort,” Fore said.
In Thailand, Fore also met with representatives from private international aid groups active in Burma, including Save the Children and CARE. While Burmese authorities have restricted access, the United States already has sent an additional $16.5 million worth of aid into Burma through these aid organizations and the United Nations. Reports are coming back that supplies are making their way into affected communities, Fore said, but more needs to be done immediately.
As the United Nations and aid organizations report their needs back to Washington, additional USAID flights will be coming, Fore said, as well as food deliveries from USAID’s warehouse in Djibouti.
As in the 2004 South Asian tsunami, Fore said, the international aid community has come together to help those in need in Burma.
“Right now, all of our assistance is a small amount compared to the need,” Fore said. “We have to focus as a community on how we can get more assistance in and how we can deliver to the people most in need.”
UNITED STATES READY TO DELIVER QUAKE AID TO CHINA
The United States also is ready to send funds, commodities and disaster response personnel to China as needed as its authorities respond to the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province.
Chinese authorities report that 15,000 people have been killed since a 7.9-magnitude quake struck outside the city of Chengdu, Fore said, with an additional 26,000 people presumed buried in the wreckage, 14,000 still missing and 67,000 others injured in the disaster. Chinese rescue operations remained hampered by severed roads and communications lines, landslides and storms, which are slowing aid to the most-affected areas.
USAID has delivered an initial $500,000 for local purchase and distribution of supplies, while many U.S. corporations doing business in China and concerned Americans have contacted the State Department to ask how they can send help to the people of China, Fore said. Private organizations such as the American Red Cross also are seeing an increase in private donations from citizens, she said.
“We’re hoping to build on many public and private partnerships and relationships and create additional partnerships to assist in the current relief and recovery efforts,” says Fore.
