MYANMAR: Mass clean-up brings confidence over water supplies

IRIN: Humanitarian News and Anlaysis

THONEGWA, 24 September 2008 (IRIN) - One of the chief concerns among aid workers in the wake of Cyclone Nargis was polluted ponds, the only source of drinking water for many villagers. However, Lwin Maung, in Thonegwa, in Yangon Division, told IRIN he was confident that despite the approaching end to this year's rainy season, residents had already cleaned and refilled enough ponds to provide the household needs for the village's 700-plus inhabitants for the next six months. Many ponds became contaminated in May when Cyclone Nargis struck. A 3m high tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area with sea-water and debris, prompting strong warnings from health officials. 'Unless traditional potable water ponds are cleaned and refilled in time, people will have no option to get clean water during the dry season as the water ponds are their traditional potable water source,' one official from the World Health Organization (WHO) told IRIN at the time, citing concerns over water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea and dysentery. According to estimates, 1,500 ponds - 13 percent of ponds in Yangon division and 43 percent of ponds in the badly affected Ayeyarwady Delta - were contaminated. In July, the UN reported that 74 percent of people in the affected areas had inadequate access to clean water, with rainwater collection seen as critical in reducing the risk of disease outbreaks.

Government records show there were at least 4,550 water ponds in the affected areas (1,578 ponds in Yangon; 2,972 ponds in Ayeyarwady). Yet even before Nargis, securing clean drinking water had been a challenge. Few people have access to piped water, with most residents reliant on rainwater harvesting tanks, communal rainwater ponds, open wells, tube wells and rivers. And though access to water did not present a serious problem during this year's rainy season (from mid-May until end-October), some parts of the storm-ravaged region still faced shortages. In a bid to address that, the UN Childre

UNICEF helps to clean contaminated water supplies in cyclone-affected Myanmar

IRRAWADDY DIVISION, Myanmar, 9 September 2008 – In Myanmar's cyclone-affected Nga Yoke Kaung village, drinking water traditionally comes only from two ponds. The recent cyclone in the Irrawaddy Delta not only destroyed homes and severely damaged the remote village's primary school, but also contaminated its primary water source. Salt water and debris stirred up by the May cyclone have made the water unusable. The ponds need to be emptied and cleaned so that they can be filled with rainwater again.“The villagers, the local authorities and aid agencies recognized right away that the cleaning of these ponds will be crucial to cover the drinking water needs of the affected population,” said UNICEF Myanmar’s Chief of Water and Sanitation, Waldemar Pickardt.Providing pumps, monitoring progressUNICEF has provided Nga Yoke Kaung village with water pumps to help drain the ponds, and is monitoring their progress. The first pond is already clean and, thanks to the constant rain, is now filled...

UNICEF stresses addressing issue of water shortage in Myanmar

 YANGON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) stressed on Monday that although children's need are being met four months after a cyclone storm hit Myanmar, the potential threat of water shortage issue should be addressed immediately, warning that the risk of water shortage is looming inthe coming dry season.     "Despite ongoing efforts to pump contaminated water out of the ponds, there is a risk that not all the water ponds can be cleaned and refilled before the beginning of the dry season," said UNICEF in Myanmar in its media release.     Noting that it is crucial to identify high risk areas with potential water shortages now, the release called for working closely with the government community and partner agencies to avoid the probability in the coming months.     According to the release, a total of 1,800 ponds have so far been cleaned with the support of government to communities and the help...

Hays brings comfort to Burmese

     John Hays says his calling is to help wherever there is a glass of impure water. Late last month he got the opportunity to help in an area that typically doesn't welcome United States Citizens.       Hays, who invented a low-cost system for purifying any kind of water, was asked last month to take his invention to cyclone-devastated Burma, officially the Republic of Myanmar. Hays said he received a call from a fellow missionary asking if his device could purity water that has had bodies floating in it. He later found out Burma, the site of a 60-year civil war, was where the devices were destined for.       "I said yes immediately, but there were about a million questions that were in my mind," Hays said. With Burma having a reputation for open warfare, he was concerned about going.       On May 2 the cyclone Nargas went through the country, wiping many villages...

UNICEF safe-water supplies arrive in Myanmar to aid cyclone survivors

Cyclone in Myanmar: Malteser International secures water supply in the slums of Yangon