Aid agencies face battle to reach victims of the cyclone

As the death toll from the Burmese cyclone rose yesterday, with up to 62,000 people now feared dead, witnesses spoke of the homelessness, hunger and disease now threatening the worst-affected areas.

The UN said more than one million people could be homeless and vast areas of the nation's rice-growing areas may have been destroyed. Unless emergency supplies can be delivered quickly, it is feared that more people will die.

"We need water, we need food!" a woman living in Thigangyun, in the north of Rangoon, wrote in a message to the BBC's Burmese service. Another witness from Tunte, across the river from Rangoon, said no aid was getting through. "I have not heard anything about help. This is the nearest town to Rangoon. It is just across Hlaing river [in Rangoon]. I have just returned from that area and I neither heard nor saw any rescue operation," the witness said.

The country's ruling junta admitted that at least 22,000 people had lost their lives and more than 40,000 were missing. About 10,000 people died in one coastal town alone, triggering fears that the final toll from Cyclone Nargis could rise significantly when workers reach some of the most isolated areas.

Towns and villages in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta bore the brunt of the ferocious storm. The area is home to a quarter of the country's population of some57 million people, and is difficult to reach at the best of times. Now, with the destruction of roads and what few communications there were, the efforts of relief agencies are being hampered further. The spread of disease is a major concern. Even in Rangoon, the former capital, there has been no electricity or running water for most of the city.

But international relief agencies are still waiting for visas to enter the country where movement and access are tightly controlled. The few who are working inside Burma face communications and travel obstacles with phone lines down and much of the infrastructure flattened.

In an email to The Independent, an aid worker in Burma wrote: "It is not Yangon [Rangoon] that is worst hit, at least people are alive. Today a team called in and said they've arrived on the tip of the [Irrawaddy] delta; 40,000 dead in one village (Pyin Su La in Labutta). Corpses everywhere. Stinking. No food. No water. And the government won't allow NGOs to work in areas where they don't have official permission. Of the 40 NGOs working in Burma, only four have permission to work in the affected area."

Thin Aye, a man whose house was destroyed and is now sheltering in a church with his family, laughed bitterly as he listened to the radio. "The government is saying how they are giving rice to the people affected by the cyclone. They are lying."

Caryl Stern, who heads the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) in the US, told Associated Press: "Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself."

As the UN urged Burma to waive visa requirements for aid workers, the British Government was also pushing the secretive state to lift long-running restrictions to allow a full response to the devastation.

Pro-democracy campaigners also warned that Burma's military regime would attempt to appropriate foreign aid. The French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, a co-founder of Médecins sans Frontières, said: "The UN is asking the Burmese government to open its doors. The Burmese government replies: 'Give us money, we'll distribute it'. We can't accept that."

The Burmese junta held a rare press conference yesterday in Rangoon, to reveal that it believed most people who perished died as a result of a tidal wave caused by Saturday's cyclone. "The wave was up to 12 feet high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," said Maung Maung Swe, the Minister for Relief and Resettlement. "More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself ... They did not have anywhere to flee."

The minister added: "Instead of waiting for figures on casualties and damage, it will be practical to send humanitarian aid to victims as soon as possible."

The regime also announced that a referendum scheduled for Saturday would be postponed in those areas worst affected by the storm. But it drew further criticism by insisting that in other parts of the country the ballot would go ahead as planned.

"They should suspend the referendum completely and devote all their national resources to the affected areas," said Debbie Stothard of the South-east Asian human rights group Altsean-Burma. "They really need to prioritise ... and make sure no more people die from exposure, malnutrition or illness."

Richard Horsey, the regional spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid, said the airport closest to the delta region was in Rangoon, more than 50 miles away.

"For those places accessible by land, there will be cars and trucks from those areas to meet at the halfway point with vehicles from Yangon," he told reporters. "For remote areas, assessment teams and assistance teams will need to go by helicopters and boats."

World governments have pledged emergency relief funds. Britain announced it was providing £5m and President George Bush pledged $3m, up from an initial infusion of $250,000. Mr Bush said: "We're prepared to move US Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilise the situation. But, in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country."

What Burma needs

Transport

Much of the road system has been washed away in the Irrawaddy delta, so assistance teams will need to travel by helicopter and boat. Small Burmese boats that could have been used to carry relief along rivers were destroyed by the cyclone. The US has warships in the Gulf of Thailand but it is unlikely the Burmese junta will allow US military assistance. Visa obstacles are also holding up the relief effort and communications are down in the stricken area.

Food

The junta has played down food shortages by saying there is sufficient rice. The cyclone-hit area is Burma's rice bowl, and damage to grain stores was reported. The World Food Programme has more than 800 tonnes of food stocks in Rangoon, and plans to airlift additional supplies into Burma, such as energy biscuits, as soon as it can.

Shelter

Up to a million people were left homeless by the cyclone, which washed away entire villages. The Irrawaddy delta contains some of Burma's poorest provinces where people live in makeshift huts. International aid agencies will have to bring in tents and plastic sheeting.

Water and sanitation

Obtaining clean drinking water is a major problem, and water supplies have been restored in only a few areas around Rangoon. Fuel shortages for trucks and lack of electricity are hampering the relief effort. Water-borne diseases are a real risk to children who survived the cyclone.

Click here to have your say

Interesting? Click here to explore further