U.N. Appeals For $482 Million To Aid Starving Myanmar Cyclone Victims

Untied Nations Headquarters (AHN)-The United Nations made an appeal on Thursday for $482 million to assist cyclone victims in Myanmar.

Launching the appeal at U.N. Headquarters, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said that the funding would support 103 aid projects including food supplies, agriculture, water and sanitation, health, schooling and shelter.

Cyclone Nargis, which devastated large areas of the East Asian country in early May, left more than 140,000 dead or missing and severely affected an estimated 2.4 million people.

Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, explained that the $482 million includes $201 million requested in an earlier appeal. He said the proposed aid effort was based on information from a joint assessment of the impact of the cyclone carried out by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Myanmar government and the U.N.

He described Cyclone Nargis as the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar, saying that as many as 800,000 people were displaced from their homes in the first weeks after the storms, according to a U.N. press statement.

The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar, Dan Baker, echoed Holmes statement on improved access, at a news conference in New York after the launch of the appeal.

The joint assessment of the humanitarian situation in Myanmar found that 42 percent of all food supplies had been destroyed and that 55 percent of families only had enough food for one day or less.

Some 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November harvest this year, while around 300,000 will need continued relief until April 2009.

More than 70 percent of households reported inadequate access to clean water because of damage to rainwater collection systems and saltwater contamination of ponds, the U.N. concluded.