LIVING standards in the Ayeyarwady delta are on the way up, said residents of some Nargis-affected areas and the humanitarian aid workers who traveled there to rebuild the area.

Some towns are reported to be tidier and more beautiful than before they were smashed by Nargis in May last year.

In the townships of Labutta, Bogale, Pyapon, Dedaye, Kyaiklat and Kungyangon, there are new developments and improvements to be seen just about everywhere you look.

In these townships, older wooden houses have become two-storey reinforced concrete buildings complete with corrugated zinc roofs.

And wise residents are seeing more than just homes in the new properties – they are seeing economic opportunity and are even trying to coordinate building plans to cater for foreign tastes, said one French NGO worker.

“Now the owners are trying to determine what the requirements of foreign workers are to make their houses more attractive. Some homeowners are working hard to rebuild their old houses to take advantage of this rental window.

“They know that if their house is good enough they’ll be able to charge an appropriate rental fee.”

However, some of the model villages being constructed for villagers are not proving quite as popular with their intended inhabitants as might have been expected.

“The new houses that have been built are good but many villagers don’t want to go to leave their old areas to live in the new villages. They really aren’t prepared to leave their thatched roofs and bamboo walls,” said U Than Myint from Thingangyi village, Labutta township.

He said that many of these villagers had grown up next to the rivers and liked how they lived. Such people, he said, did not want to live in organised villages.

“Most of the houses that have been built have wooden floors and zinc roofs, when before they would have thatch roofs and bamboo walls. It’s taken some people a lot to get used to their new surroundings; others just left,” said one construction worker.