Burma aid restrictions leave agencies at "10 percent"
Updated
The United Nations says it's struggling to help up to two million people in Burma whose lives are at risk from starvation and disease in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
Presenter: Peter Cave
Speaker: Terje Skavdal, Regional Head Of The UN's Office For The Coordination Of Humanitarian Affairs; Marcus Prior, Wolrd Food Program
PETER CAVE: Terje Skavdal is the regional head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
TERJE SKAVDAL: As we speak, we are reaching people with aid but we are reaching too few and too slowly. The scale of need is so large that its impact will be limited.
PETER CAVE: He says the UN and other relief agencies have the food, materials and expertise to quickly speed up their operations but they are being hampered by the inability to bring in the expert logistical staff needed because the Burmese junta is not issuing visas quickly enough and aid groups are hamstrung by restrictions placed on the movements of foreign aid workers by the regime.
TERJE SKAVDAL: Access is a key question. There are limitation if not bans on international staff going to the Delta.
PETER CAVE: His colleague from the World Food Program, Marcus Prior outlined just how much the restrictions were hampering aid efforts.
MARCUS PRIOR: They estimate they have less than 10 per cent of the international staff, material and general logistics apparatus that they feel is needed. On the food side, we think we need to be moving 375 tonnes of food a day down into the affected areas. We are doing less than 20 per cent of that.
PETER CAVE: The delivery of food is particularly urgent - Richard Bridle from UNICEF.
RICHARD BRIDLE: We are very concerned that we are going to have an increase in acute malnutrition and so over the coming days and weeks, we will have to set up screening systems to find those children that are acutely malnourished and make sure that they get treatment for that acute malnutrition. If they are not treated, they will die.
PETER CAVE: Terje Skavdal says the battle will not only be against time but also the elements.
TERJE SKAVDAL: The weather forecast in the affected area suggests rain within the coming week. It will be equal for the full rainfall in May last year. So it is going to be a very, very difficult situation for the affected population in the days to come.
PETER CAVE: As well as the obvious risk from flooding, the rains also pose the risk of an upsurge in malaria and dengue fever which could become major killers with more than a million people living in the open.
Despite the increasing risks however the United Nations does not support the solution which has been considered by the United States and France of ignoring the sovereignty of the military junta and carrying out a full scale air drop of food and supplies into the Irrawaddy delta.
TERJE SKAVDAL: Well, I don't think anybody knows, at this stage, seriously consider air drops, airdropping and so on. I think the issue now is trying to build the best possible relationship with the government to get the best possible access.
