AN ASEAN-led assessment team that conducted a detailed survey of conditions in cyclone-affected areas of Ayeyarwady and Yangon divisions reported last week that many people were still in need of humanitarian assistance, nearly two months after cyclone Nargis swept through Myanmar.

The 300-member team comprising government officials and experts from ASEAN, the United Nations, World Bank and Asian Development Bank “has found that there is a need for continued humanitarian relief efforts to cover unmet needs,” UN spokesperson Ms Michele Montas told reporters in New York on Thursday.

The team, which visited 380 villages in Ayeyarwady and Yangon divisions, also found that there was a continuing need for supplies of food and clean drinking water, she said.

The team reported that 60 percent of houses in the worst-affected areas were destroyed, and expressed concern that many houses were being rebuilt using bamboo that would last a maximum of two years.

“Shelter designed in the spirit of ‘Build Back Better’ would be an important form of longer-term recovery activities,” said a UN statement issued last Thursday.
Ms Montas was speaking after the team presented its preliminary findings to a meeting in Yangon on Tuesday, which was attended by representatives from potential donor countries.

The assessment team had deployed in cyclone-affected areas from June 9 to 19 to conduct the survey under the aegis of a tripartite working group made up of representatives from the government, ASEAN and the UN.

The team’s complete report will be issued on July 18 and will be used as the basis for mobilising international assistance to provide assistance and long-term reconstruction support.

Myanmar has appealed for US$11 billion from international donors to support these efforts.

“The government of Myanmar is supporting this assessment, allowing the teams unlimited and unfettered access to the affected areas, helping the teams obtain the data for the assessment and providing the necessary logistical support,” ASEAN said in a statement issued after the Yangon meeting.

“This is an important report which we can consider as a roadmap for the medium and long-term recovery of Myanmar in the wake of cyclone Nargis. Our guiding principle is to help Myanmar build back better than before,” ASEAN secretary general Mr Surin Pitsuwan, who attended the meeting, was quoted as saying in the statement.

“We want to ensure that the conditions and reservations expressed by the representatives of 51 countries, the international institutions, international NGOs who attended the ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference on May 25 in Yangon – issues related to transparency, accessibility and the issue of reaching the affected people – are addressed through this community-based assessment,” Mr Surin told a separate meeting on cyclone relief held in Yangon on Wednesday.

“We also want to make sure that the basic needs of the people are being met for their early recovery. So, this is going to be the basis for medium- and long-term recovery. I think the reconstruction, the major involvement and major contributions will come at a later stage,” said Mr Surin, who leads an ASEAN task force formed in May to oversee relief efforts in Myanmar.

Mr Surin said the effective rebuilding of the country would turn “the rice bowl of Myanmar into its traditional role as the rice bowl not only of Myanmar but also of Southeast Asia and contributing to the relief of the food crisis that the world appears to be facing in the last months”.

He was referring to a sharp rise in the price of rice in the global market due to export restrictions put in place by some major paddy-growing countries.
The ASEAN-led assessment report will be also be used by the UN to update its current appeal of $201 million to help nearly 2.5 million cyclone survivors. The UN has also issued a separate appeal of $83 million to help farmers resume their work as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the government announced last week that 84,537 people were now known to have died and 53,836 people were still missing as the result of the cyclone. The previous official figures were 77,738 dead and 55,917 missing.