Cyclone Nargis survivors need aid desperately

Cyclone Nargis survivors need aid desperately
by -
Kachin News Group
Three weeks after the killer Cyclone Nargis claimed thousands of lives and rendered thousands homeless, survivors are still to get relief material. No assessment of the extent of devastation has been made in the affected villages of Irrawaddy delta, said a private aid workers team.

Three weeks after the killer Cyclone Nargis claimed thousands of lives and rendered thousands homeless, survivors are still to get relief material. No assessment of the extent of devastation has been made in the affected villages of Irrawaddy delta, said a private aid workers team.

The team went to the affected Daoh Gyi village, which took four hours by boat from Bogalay Township, despite the Burmese military junta having prohibited aid workers from going to the affected area.

"The authorities were not allowing us to go there but one of my friends is from that village and we went with his help," an aid worker from the team who requested anonymity told KNG.

"Before the cyclone the village had over 100 houses and 1,000 people, but now all the houses are gone even though less than 10 villagers died in the cyclone," he added.

Most villagers are ethnic Karen and none of the NGOs have provided them help. The village has been flooded and bodies could still be seen around the village.  

"According to what we heard from the villagers, not to many people died in their village. But villages around them recorded thousands of deaths. They saw several thousand bodies being thrown into the sea every day after Cyclone Nargis lashed the coast," said an aid worker.

He continued that the villagers have no food to eat and all the rice has been damaged. The aid workers collected wet and dried rice to cook for the survivors. The water is salty but they had no option but to drink it.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Burma yesterday to talk to the military rulers to allow international aid agencies to help the cyclone hit regions.