Cautious optimism six months after cyclone lashed Myanmar

Six months after Cyclone Nargis lashed Myanmar, the initial despair over the ruling junta's inaction has been replaced by cautious optimism that more aid is reaching the country's needy.

Despite enormous obstacles after the May 2 and 3 cyclone that left 138,000 people dead or missing and devastated rice paddies, supplies have made their way through the country's battered infrastructure to survivors.

Myanmar provoked outrage in the weeks after the disaster as it mired the aid effort in red tape, hampering volunteers trying to get to the affected areas. But the junta relented after a visit from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The resulting cooperation between the isolated military rulers and the outside world has raised hopes that more aid can get through to those in need, where Western sanctions and junta restrictions previously kept donors away.

"We've seen trust being built, we've seen relationships strengthened," said Amanda Pitt, spokeswomen for the UN's emergency relief arm in Bangkok.

"It would be great if that spirit of dialogue and cooperation could be developed even further."

But down in the southwest Irrawaddy Delta, which suffered the brunt of Cyclone Nargis, many people still do not know where their next clean drink of water will come from.

Food and medical supplies may have arrived in the most far-flung corners of the delta but in many areas housing is just a sheet of plastic and people worry about what will happen when emergency aid runs out.

At Thar Yar Chaung village on Pyin Kayaing island in the far southwest of the delta, the cyclone brought undrinkable sea water flooding into the ponds.

People fear a makeshift rainwater tank of tarpaulin and wood poles will not be enough to see them through the dry season which begins in November.

"Six months after Nargis, we are trying to get back on track and have begun to step forward but still houses are not rebuilt," said a villager in his 60s.

"Farming rice did not work well because of spoiled rice seeds. There are still many things needed to be done. Among all those needs, water is the main concern for us. We can't live without drinking water."

Villagers have received food, tarpaulin, mosquito nets, blankets, water buckets and money from different organisations but worry how they are going to pay back government loans they took out to rebuild their lives.

"This boat and engine from Myanmar's fishery department are worth about 400,000 Kyats (330 dollars) and we had to sign for it to pay back that amount of money," fisherman Myint Lwin told AFP.

It is the long-term needs such as permanent housing, clean water and job creation that donors need to start stumping up cash for, said Pitt.

The United Nations appealed for 464 million dollars to help the cyclone survivors and so far donors have come forward with 257 million dollars.

Help is all the more important in a country where the government spends just 0.3 percent of its GDP on healthcare, according the UN figures from 2004.

Exacerbating the problem, Myanmar only received 2.9 dollars of foreign aid per person in 2005, the UN says, compared with more than 38 dollars per person in nearby Cambodia and nearly 50 dollars in Laos.

Despite the relative success of the Nargis relief operation, the complaints that kept donors away remain. Permission is needed to travel outside Yangon, some areas are out of bounds and many pro-democracy groups pressure governments to withhold any money from the junta.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and is under American and European sanctions because of human rights abuses and the long-running detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, however, said in a statement in October that an increased flow of foreign aid into Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis could help open up the country and foster democratic reform.

Frank Smithuis, Myanmar country director for Doctors Without Borders -- Holland, said health needs throughout the country were immense, with thousands of people dying each year from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

"I think the reason why there was not aid to Myanmar is not because it is not possible but because of political reasons," he told AFP.

"The only people who suffer from that is the Myanmar people."