Rangoon, Burma (BBN) – Delivery of sufficient relief and early recovery assistance remains a challenge in cyclone Nargis hit Burma, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
“We have seen significant progress being made in the affected areas as a result of the coordinated efforts of local and international humanitarian actors, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Burma, officially known as Myanmar, Daniel Baker said in a statement on the day.
However, much more urgently needs to be done in remote areas where affected communities are still living in dire conditions, he noted.
With the loss of up to 85 per cent of seed stocks and some 50 per cent of buffalos in cyclone-affected areas, the rapid provision of paddy farming inputs in time for the monsoon planting season remains critical, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The OCHA also said there is an urgent need to supply food to some 924,000 vulnerable individuals on a systematic basis over the next nine months.
The cyclone Nargis which devastated large areas of the East Asian country in early May, leaving around 140,000 dead or missing and severely affecting an estimated 2.4 million people.
BBN/SI/SI/AD-06August08-12.24 AM
