Six months on from Cyclone Nargis: Delivering aid
3 November 2008
Read the stories below to see how UK Government support for Save the Children is helping children and families affected by Cyclone Nargis.
Clean water helps families faces the dry season
The people of the Irrawaddy Delta are keenly aware that water is life. Rivers, channels and the sea provide a living for many families in this area, through activities from fishing to crop irrigation. They are often also the only ways by which people and goods can move around the region.
These waterways serve another essential purpose, as sources of water for cooking and drinking. Yet while the region does not lack for water as a whole, it does face
a scarcity of fresh, safe water.
When the tidal surge from Cyclone Nargis swept across the Delta on 2-3 May,
wells and ponds became contaminated. Villages
throughout the region were flooded for hours, and the wind and water destroyed the large clay pots traditionally
used to collect and store rainwater. Families were deprived of the very tools
that would have helped them to cope with the dry season that, six months later,
is now approaching.
Across the Delta, efforts are now intensifying to supply safe water to
communities affected by the disaster. DFID funding for Save the Children is playing a big role in helping families to overcome
shortages and prepare for the future.
In
Thar Yar Chaung, a small village on hard-hit Middle Island at the western tip of
the Delta, Save the
Children has built temporary water collection tanks to meet the needs of local
families.
At the local monastery, two 5,000 gallon
water collection tanks have been constructed, both of which are nearly full after recent rains.
Once full, the tanks will be covered and will hold a two-month supply, ready to
serve the entire village when existing supplies are depleted.
Throughout the village another 35 tanks have been provided,
each holding 400 gallons. Shared by four to five households, they are already
full of lifesaving water. The village can also count on two other 5,000 gallon
containers located nearby. Across Middle Island a total of 1,000 water tanks of
varying sizes have now been built.
"We can only use well water for cleaning - it's too salty for drinking," says Sein Nyein, who leads a local water and sanitation committee recently
established by Save the Children. "We have tried to dig new wells, but the water
isn't as good as it was before. It tastes salty or metallic, and sometimes it's yellow. If this continues we'll need to build more permanent
water-collection sites."
DFID has supported water and sanitation projects throughout the area, cleaning wells and containment points, constructing much-needed water
points, and supplying water treatment plants that produce safe water for
thousands of people.
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Earning a living in the aftermath of disaster
A shortage of clean water is not the only problem faced by survivors of Cyclone Nargis in the Delta. The disaster also swept away the livelihoods of many families - and left them without the means to find a new one.
Daw Aye lives with her husband, youngest daughter and three grandchildren in
Thè Chaung, a small village located on Middle Island. Before the cyclone, she
earned a living by selling dry fish and prawns in her husband's native village.
With the profits, she purchased bamboo mats, which she then sold in her own
village. This earned her a good living, she says.
Today the family lives on higher ground in a temporary home, located above the
coast and their now-destroyed village.
"I had a good business, but now there is no money to restart it and no one to
help with the investment," says Daw.
Save the Children provided Daw with a small pig to help earn the income to
restart her business. Two months later, the animal will soon be ready to take to
market.
"I'm expecting to sell the pig in May and, hopefully, I can sell it for 150,000 kyats (about $125)," she says. "This pig is a savings bank for me. Once I get
the money from it, I'll go back to selling dry fish and mats."
DFID-supported livelihoods programmes in the Irrawaddy Delta have given hope to
villagers affected by the storm and empowered them to restart their lives. With
this assistance, families can replace lost assets like livestock, nets, boats or
stock for their shops and begin earning a living again.
Daw's family has benefited from other Save the Children assistance too. When her daughter fell ill with jaundice, a free clinic funded by the organisation ensured that treatment was on hand. Food distributions and emergency infant feeding programs are also seeing that essential services are getting to those in need.
