Several more houses collapsed after 24 March, the day the 6.8 magnitude tremors hit Tachilek’s Talerh (Tarley) sub-township, across from Thailand’s Maesai, but the government have decided to assist only owners of the houses that disintegrated on the day of the quake, victims have complained to SHAN.
According to official reports, some 390 houses caved in on 24 March night. “To be qualified for aid, the #1 requirement is your house must be irretrievably wrecked,” said an voluntary aid worker. “#2 requirement is that it must happened only on the night of 24 March, not after.”
A total of 151 houses collapsed in Talerh’s west Mong Lane tract alone, he added.
Newly appointed Vice President Sai Mawk Kham has reportedly given 400,000 kyat ($466) to each victim. “They have been promised another 1.5 million kyat ($1,750) each, 500,000 kyat in cash and 1 million kyat in the form of construction material such as zinc sheets, cement and wood,” said a village from west Mong Lane. (Another report says the people whose houses were not totally destroyed but unliveable nevertheless, were given K 200,000 ($433) each.)
Other complaints from both the victims and aid workers include the bulk of the aid packages going to the military camps and being resold cheap by the soldiers’ family members. For example, a bag of instant noodle costs 6 baht ($0.2) is being sold at half the market price. And a can of sardine, 15 baht ($0.5), at just one third of its market price.
What the victims are in desperate need reportedly include zinc sheets for roofing, dry foodstuffs and water containers.
Meanwhile, IRIN News reported on 3 May that according to UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) estimates, some 375,000 people (75,000 households) in the Irrawaddy deta are still in need of housing 3 years after Cyclone Nargis struck Burma.
