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photo © UNDP

Yangon, Myanmar — At least 22,980 people were killed and more than 42,000 are still missing after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on 2-3 May, according to State authorities. Sweeping through the country’s largest city, Yangon, and the Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) Delta region, the cyclone has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Both areas remain official disaster zones.

The 120-mile per hour winds knocked out power and communications, overturned cars, uprooted trees and damaged and destroyed buildings and houses in Yangon. Limited water, communications and electricity services have been restored to parts of the city, however the extent of the damage means recovery will be a slow and lengthy process for its six million residents.

The effect of the cyclone has been particularly devastating in the Delta, where entire villages have been flattened and the highest number of casualties is recorded. While the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is not a relief agency, it is the only UN agency located in the region, which is home to seven million people.

Five of the agency's microfinance project personnel based in Labutta, under contract with the international non-governmental organization Pact, are amongst the casualties, with many others having lost members of their immediate families.

UNDP has sent rotating teams of national staff to work with and relieve its field staff in four of the affected townships – Bogalay, Kyaiklat, Labutta and Mawlamyinegyun– where its Microfinance and Integrated Community Development Projects operate. The teams are making assessments of the disaster, delivering small relief items and providing support to the populations UNDP serves.

“This crisis is about the survivors – many of whom have lost their homes, their loved ones and most things near and dear to them,” said UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Sanaka Samarasinha. “We are trying to reach as many of the communities and villages we serve as possible, however our ability to access, report and respond to people’s needs is hampered by the fact that we can only get to areas accessible by road —most of UNDP’s boats were destroyed in the cyclone.”

In terms of relief items, the UN Country Team in Myanmar considers critical needs to be plastic sheeting, water purification tablets, cooking sets, mosquito nets, emergency health kits and food.

Humanitarian partners are working together to collect information about the scale of the destruction and the UN has established a system of nine key “clusters” to coordinate the humanitarian response. UNDP is leading the Early Recovery cluster, a complex area that is critical in linking immediate responses to disasters with medium- and long-term recovery efforts.