Scant Aid Reaching Burma's Delta

Gallery

Cyclone Ravages Burmese Delta

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the nation's largest city and rice-producing delta on May 3, 2008. Days later, the death toll continues to rise into the tens of thousands.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

State-controlled newspapers have appealed for patience and public understanding of the challenge confronting the authorities, while state television has aired images of soldiers delivering aid goods. But among middle-class residents of the colonial-era former capital, anger is growing at the military, which many people see as having been slow to respond to the catastrophe.

Five days after the storm, many residents were still working to clear away decades-old trees that once lined streets but now, fallen, choke them. "Around my neighborhood, the men are going out with saws and choppers from the kitchen," Ma Thanegi, a prominent Burmese writer, said in a telephone interview.

Ludu Sein Win, a prominent retired journalist, said by phone that "in the past, if one person came out holding a poster for a protest, dozens and dozens of soldiers and police came out in five minutes. But now nobody can help us. They say we have to do everything by ourselves."

City workers have begun the massive job of restoring the electricity system, which was totally knocked out by the cyclone, with virtually all power poles uprooted.

Without electricity, water pumps can't run, forcing households to scramble for clean drinking water.

Many of Rangoon's more affluent residents have long relied on small diesel-fueled generators to provide electricity during the lengthy power outages that plagued the city even before the disaster. Such generators can run water pumps -- if there's fuel, which is now running short.

Lining up for diesel, which has doubled in price since the disaster, can be a full-time job. "To get four gallons, you wait from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.," said one city resident.

Water trucks are selling to poorer families, but at high prices. Food prices, too, have risen rapidly in local markets, putting a huge burden on poor families.

But Ma Thanegi said she believes it is unfair for middle-class Rangoon residents to gripe, given the unprecedented scale of the disaster. "The government can't be helping the people rich enough to have phones," she said. "There are a lot of people without homes, with nothing at all. I think the government is doing the best they can with the resources, expertise and technical support they have. There is no experience of anything on this scale before."

Even before the cyclone sent a powerful tidal surge across vast swaths of the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta, the region's rice production was far below inherent potential. Many economists blame the situation on state controls that they say gave farmers little incentive to boost yields. Burma had nevertheless remained self-sufficient in rice, but its exports dwindled.

The cyclone's savage harm to the delta, which normally accounts for about 65 percent of Burmese rice output, could cause food problems across the country for the foreseeable future. "It is far-reaching, really far-reaching," said one Rangoon-based agricultural expert. "The region was already underperforming, very much on the edge."

Already, rice prices in Rangoon markets have surged by nearly 50 percent. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that Burma may not meet commitments to export about 600,000 tons of rice in 2008.