New Delhi (Mizzima) - A year after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, the United Nations claims thousands of victims are still in need of assistance.

Bishow Parajuli, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Burma, said though humanitarian assistance led by the UN and other agencies had been able to save-lives, rebuilding was still a daunting task and required continuous financial support by the international community.

“If we move at the speed that we did in the relief cycle, I would have great hope,” Parajuli said in Rangoon on Friday.

“There are two elements there, however, continuous support and cooperation of the Government and continuous support financially from the international community,” he said.

He said, recovery from the devastation caused by the Cyclone had been uneven, with urban centres able to rebound, but much of the Irrawaddy Delta, where whole villages had been swept away, still in a dire situation, both physically and psychologically.

On May 2, 2008, the deadly Cyclone Nargis swept through Burma’s coastal region of Irrawaddy and Rangoon division, killing at least 1,40,000 people and leaving more than 2.4 million people homeless.

Although the Burmese military government initially banned aid groups from entering, later, humanitarian assistance was led by the UN for the past year. The UN said, while the emergency relief period was over, rebuilding the lives and livelihoods still remained a big challenge.

In February, the UN along with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Burmese government came up with a recovery plan called the Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP), which would be carried out for the next three years, and would require USD 691 million.

Parajuli said, securing those funds would not be easy, as even during the emergency phase, only 66 per cent, or USD 315 million of the UN appeal was raised, out of a total appeal of USD 477 million.

He said, out of the nearly USD 700 required funds, so far only about USD 100 had been pledged by donor countries, warning that the lack of support by the international community could slow down the reconstruction work in Burma.

Particularly important currently was the USD 16.6 million requested for seeds, fertilizers, animals and agricultural tools, to allow farmers to plant in time for the upcoming rainy season, he said.

Even as Parajuli praises the Burmese military government for its cooperation, saying “Humanitarian cooperation with the Government is still smooth,” relief workers in the fields said, the junta’s restrictions on aid flow as well as the ban on foreign journalists, had made the situation worse.

A relief worker with an International Non-governmental Organization, working in the Irrawaddy Delta, told Mizzima on condition of anonymity, that the momentum had been lost as there was no widespread media coverage to highlight the immense needs in recovery and reconstruction work.

“The most important and glaring thing about Cyclone Nargis, one year later is that the needs are still immense and recovery is by no means close to getting there,” he said.

“In fact, it is an uphill battle for families as they face insurmountable odds, with economic stagnation, plummeting crop prices for farmers, credit crunch, very weak purchasing power, joblessness etc,” he added.

The funds that have come for recovery are of only about a fraction of what came in for the Asian tsunami, he said. Adding that it was basically because the humanitarian outcry lost its momentum, when there was no media coverage.

“We're now looking at the start of the rainy season, very soon in a few weeks - yet people are still without basic shelter,” he said.

The plastic tarps distributed shortly after the cyclone last year are now completely frayed and roofing is totally makeshift for thousands of families, he said.

“It will not last during the first monsoon rain. They need to be able to rebuild their houses properly, not just the precarious shelter they've been able to piece together from scraps,” the relief worker said.

However, in some areas of the delta such as Chuang Wa village in Pyapone Township, though the need for shelter remains, survivors said their primary requirement was food.

“We are living in temporary shelters, it does not matter, we can try to survive but what we need is food. We desperately need more food supplies,” said Khin Maung Than, a farmer from Chaung Wa village, about 16 miles south of Pyapone Town.

Khin Maung Than said, they had initially received food supplies, but it had stopped since March 2009. And with most of their earning possibilities completely destroyed, the villagers are helplessly waiting for food and other aid for their survival.