Myanmar needs $700 mln in cyclone aid - U.N.

Mon Feb 9, 2009 8:45am EST

BANGKOK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar needs around $700 million in aid over the next three years to recover from last year's devastating cyclone, an aid coordinating group said on Monday.

The appeal, focused on eight key areas including nutrition, health and livelihoods, comes at a time when many governments are being squeezed by the global economic crisis.

Foreign donors are also reluctant to provide aid to the former Burma, under military rule since 1962 and isolated internationally over its dismal human rights record.

A $477 million appeal for aid after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta last May has raised $309 million so far, the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which drafted the new 3-year plan, said in a statement.

But officials from the United Nations and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), who along with the Myanmar government form the TCG, were confident donors would help.

"It is a very, very modest support request compared to the magnitude of the disaster," Bishow Parajuli, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, told reporters in Bangkok.

He said the recovery budget for Cyclone Nargis, which left 140,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million severely affected, was small compared to the $5.1 billion donated for recovery in Indonesia's Aceh after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Nearly a year after the cyclone swept away their villages, survivors are still struggling to find permanent shelter. A survey of 2,000 households in October found one in three living in temporary conditions.

Access to clean water also remains a challenge. Aid agencies are using reverse osmosis machines to purify the water but it is labour-intensive and costly.

"We're in the middle of the dry season in Myanmar and around half of the affected areas in March will experience salty streams at high tide," said Andrew Kirkwood, country director for the charity Save the Children.

"Basically it means getting fresh drinking water this time of the year is extremely difficult," he said.

A lack of credit and access to markets have also saddled many delta farmers with heavy debts, said Chris Kaye, country director for the U.N.'s World Food Programme.

Myanmar's junta was criticised for resisting international assistance in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, but ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said a certain level of trust had been achieved with the regime.

The TCG is chaired by senior Myanmar official Kyaw Thu, who did not attend the news conference, but in a statement praised the international community's efforts.

"The close collaboration between the government and the international community over the last nine months has been vital to the relief and early recovery efforts," he said.