Cylone-hit Myanmar struggles to recover year after disaster others available (Feature)

Kyaingchaungyi, Myanmar - News reports last month of another cyclone heading to Myanmar brought back bad memories for San Tint, who lost 14 family members to Cyclone Nargis last year. 'After hearing the radio news about Cyclone Bijili, some people started to leave our village,' San Tint said. 'But I decided not to leave here because I wanted to die. I wished I would follow my late family members in the new cyclone.' The 46-year-old from Kyaingchaungyi village, about 32 kilometres south-west of Bogalay town, lost his wife, five sons, four daughters-in-law and four grandchildren in Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar May 2-3 last year, killing 140,000 people. 'They left me alone,' San Tint said. 'Now I am living with my relatives in a new house donated by a local business firm. The new house is much better than the one where I stayed together with my family, but I have to return back to my fishing job. For that, I need a fishing boat.' Local authorities have given 16 boats to villagers, but San Tint wasn't one of the lucky recipients. 'There are more than 100 fishermen in our village, and most of them are still waiting to get fishing equipment like boats and nets,' said another villager in Kyainchaungyi, 80 per cent of whose population of 2,472 people were killed in Cyclone Nargis. Their experience mirrored those of other Nargis victims struggling to rebuild their lives and livelihoods in the wake of the storm that slammed into the Irrawaddy Delta. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that about 10,000 boats were lost in Cyclone Nargis last year. So far, about 15,000 have already been provided, according to a report from the Yangon office of the United Nations Development Programme. 'At least we need soft loans to buy fishing tools, but nothing has happened yet,' San Tint said. Some local donors have started credit projects to fill the need. The world donor community has provided 66 per cent of the 477 million dollars the United Nations requested in its flash appeal for Nargis victims last year, about 2.5 per cent of the 12 billion dollars provided after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed 220,000 people in 11 countries. Ye Min Oo - project director of the Htoo Foundation, a Myanmar development group - said it has considered setting up a credit scheme for people like San Tint but did not say when it might be implemented. Not only fishermen but also farmers are facing a tough time rebuilding their livelihoods in the delta. Crop yields last year were considerably lower than typical monsoon yields because the soil was damaged by salt water driven inland by Nargis, said Naing Win, 32, a farmer from Kyainchaungyi. His rice paddy produced only 20 tin, or paddy baskets, per acre, he said. Tin is Myanmar's traditional measurement used for weighing agriculture products, and a tin is roughly equivalent to 32 kilograms. 'The most important thing that we need now is seeds,' he said. 'How we can start planting for the coming monsoon without having seeds?' Farmers said it would take at least another three years to regain normal yields and healthy soil. According to statistics released by the Agriculture Cluster of Myanmar, about 80 per cent of paddy land was planted during the previous monsoon and yields were about half of normal. The Agriculture Cluster is a group led by the Food and Agriculture Organization and composed of nearly 50 local and international non-governmental organizations as well as UN, government and private sector organizations. It provides assistance to the agricultural sector in Nargis-hit areas. The Agriculture Cluster said reasonable credit is lacking and tilling capacity has not been fully restored as it identified the main hurdles remaining for farmers in the cyclone zone. Ahead of the new monsoon, which is due to begin in the delta this month, 220 new timber houses have been built by donors in Kyainchaungyi and are occupied by about 1,000 survivors, and another 200 units are to be built soon. But most of the survivors in the delta have been living in poor temporary shelters. About 17,000 houses have been built, but half a million people are still in urgent need of shelter before the monsoon arrives, according to the Shelter Cluster group. Each sector in the delta - shelter, agriculture, livestock, education and health facilities - still needs enormous assistance. The Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan by the United Nations, Myanmar's government and the Association of South-East Asian Nations projected that 691 million dollars is needed over the next three years. 'Continued support and engagement by the international community must be ensured for years to come, so the 2.4 million cyclone-affected people can fully recover and regain economic and social stability,' said Bishow Parajuli, UN humanitarian coordinator. 'Challenges still remain,' he said.