http://www.wikio.com/search=Nargis Wikio - Nargis http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64774824 Hundreds of riot police and soldiers ringed a monument in downtown Yangon on Saturday as officials gathered to commemorate the shooting death 61 years ago of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's father. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:44:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64774824 2008-07-19T09:44:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64769599 Hundreds of riot police and soldiers ringed a monument in central Rangoon today as officials gathered to commemorate the shooting death 61 years ago of Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s father. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:12:12 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64769599 2008-07-19T08:12:12Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64761103 Singapore - Ministers from the Association of of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to tackle soaring fuel and food prices and a barrage of other problems and their meeting Monday, but Myanmar is once again likely to steal the show. Senior... Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:21:02 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64761103 2008-07-19T05:21:02Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64759079 Viewed as a curse by those who lost their homes and loved ones to Cyclone Nargis, heavy rain in recent weeks is proving a saviour of sorts to thousands of cyclone survivors in need of safe drinking water. “When it rains, I feel it is a blessing,” Daw Khin, a woman in her early fifties in the village of Pawin outside Bogale Township at the far tip of the delta, said. “Now what I have to do when it rains is ensure it drains into a ceramic pot.” But Daw Khin - struggling to provide for her five-member family more than two months after the worst natural disaster in recent times to strike Myanmar - is still worried. Should the heavy rains that continue to pummel her roofless home stop, so too would her one source of clean drinking water. “The thought of no more rain kills me,” she said. An estimated 2.4 million people were severely affected by the category four storm that struck Yangon Division and parts of the Ayeyarwady Delta in southern Myanmar in early May, leaving nearly 140,000 people either dead or missing. Inadequate access to water A Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) in June by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the UN and the Myanmar government, revealed a significant number of households reporting inadequate access to clean drinking water. On 10 July the UN reported that 74 percent of people in the cyclone areas had inadequate access to clean water, with rainwater collection viewed as critical in reducing the risk of disease outbreaks. Most people in the delta today find themselves reliant on rainwater as their primary source of safe drinking water. Ponds, the traditional source of drinking water in the area, became heavily salinated when a three-metre tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area, devastating homes and crops across a 23,500 square kilometre area (almost twice the size of Lebanon). Today those same ponds are avoided by area residents for fear of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea - prompting them to look to the sky for help, which so far has delivered as part of this year’s rainy season. To harness what nature provides, residents, particularly in more remote areas, make do with what they can find - including bamboo, or plastic sheeting donated by the government or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to funnel the water, while others use handmade drains made of zinc. “My drain is made of plastic. But it's good enough for three households,” Hla Htay, a Pawin resident who shares her water with her neighbours, told IRIN. “It'd be a disaster, if we have no more rain,” she said. Water purification International organisations and UN agencies, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), are working to provide water purification tablets and kits, as well as water filters, to ensure the water is clean. Various water purification systems in the storm-affected area have also been put in place - in an effort to mitigate the risk of water-borne diseases - an approach that so far appears to be working. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), to date there have been no reported outbreaks of water-borne disease. Moreover, significant efforts are now under way to pump contaminated water out of ponds so that they can be replenished with this year’s monsoon rains. Keeping traditional water ponds for drinking and household needs is the best way to mitigate the problem of water shortages, according to Waldemar Pickardt, chief of water and environmental sanitation for UNICEF/Myanmar in Yangon, the former Burmese capital. Time running out Most of the pumps used to drain the ponds are small. This allows for greater mobility into more remote areas by boat, but the pumps’ capacity is limited. Pumping out the ponds is a race against time. In some places, local volunteers are stepping forward to clean them up. However, many ponds have yet to be touched, even though the heaviest rains normally end in August. “I'm afraid we won't finish cleaning all the water ponds before the rainy season goes out,” UNICEF’s Pickardt told IRIN, pointing out that they now had only one month to make the ponds ready to fill with rainwater for the year ahead. “I'm afraid the next hardship will be to get safe water,” Pickardt warned. “Water shortages would be more likely to happen in those areas [the storm-affected Ayeyarwaddy Delta] when the rain stops,” the UNICEF official said, adding that a water shortage was likely in the dry season around January and February. Disclaimer:This material comes to you via IRIN , the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Photo: Copyright IRIN Sedo- Domain name Aftermarket: OriginalBlogger.com Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:23:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64759079 2008-07-19T03:23:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737853 Burmese authorities will close three remaining refugee camps in Laputta, one of the areas hardest-hit by Cyclone Nargis, on August 5, forcing about 6,000 remaining refugees to return to their villages... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:34 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737853 2008-07-18T19:35:34Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737856 Three Burmese fishermen are still stranded five and-a-half months after they made it to the eastern coast of India’s Orissa state, after drifting at sea for three months. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:32 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737856 2008-07-18T19:35:32Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737855 New Delhi - The United Nations food agency on Thursday stepped up its appeal for aid to US$ 33.5 million for farmers in Burma's main rice producing region devastated by Cyclone Nargis, since 75 per ce... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:29 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737855 2008-07-18T19:35:29Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737846 New Delhi - In solidarity with Burmese cyclone victims, students from Trinity Western University of Canada and Canadian Friends of Burma are planning to hold a musical concert on Sunday, organizers sa... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:28 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737846 2008-07-18T19:35:28Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737857 Foreign Minister George Yeo gave the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a grade C for its handling of Burma following the Cyclone Nargis disaster in May, when the country’s ruling j... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:27 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737857 2008-07-18T19:35:27Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737845 Japanese aid to Burma for the reconstruction phase in the cyclone affected areas of the Irrawaddy Delta will be determined based on an assessment of how effectively emergency aid has been delivered, a... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:25 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737845 2008-07-18T19:35:25Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737850 Holmes will also attend a meeting in Singapore on Monday to take part in the release of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) Report by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Burme... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:35:24 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64737850 2008-07-18T19:35:24Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64712705 Japanese aid to Burma for the reconstruction phase in the cyclone affected areas of the Irrawaddy Delta will be determined based on an assessment of how effectively emergency aid has been delivered, a... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:55:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64712705 2008-07-18T14:55:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64712706 quoted Yeo as saying. "Certainly not an A or B, but I would say on the whole, with Asean's assistance and Asean taking the lead in bringing humanitarian assistance into Burma, we could give oursel... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:54:37 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64712706 2008-07-18T14:54:37Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64712711 New Delhi – Three Burmese fishermen are still stranded five and-a-half months after they made it to the eastern coast of India's Orissa state, after drifting at sea for three months. Zaw Oo, Zaw ... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:54:19 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64712711 2008-07-18T14:54:19Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64686280 New Delhi – Though the monsoon rice plantation season is coming to an end, farmers in cyclone-hit Bogale and Labutta Townships have been unable to sow paddy. Only one third of the farmers from Bo... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:33:50 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64686280 2008-07-18T09:33:50Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64686282 Singapore - Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo gave the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a grade C for its handling of Myanmar following the Cyclone Nargis disaster in May, when the ... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:31:55 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64686282 2008-07-18T08:31:55Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64637492 Singapore - Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo gave the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a grade C for its handling of Myanmar following the Cyclone Nargis disaster in May, when the country's ruling junta resisted foreign aid, a tra... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:40:01 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64637492 2008-07-18T06:40:01Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64645740 (2 hrs ago) The United Nations food agency tripled its aid appeal for farmers in Myanmar's rice-producing region devastated by Cyclone Nargis, saying three-quarters of them are short of seeds needed... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:49:21 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64645740 2008-07-18T04:49:21Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64618683 Singapore - Foreign Minister George Yeo gave the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) a grade C for its handling of Myanmar following the Cyclone Nargis disaster in May, when the country's ruling junta refusing to allow foreign aid, a publ... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:25:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64618683 2008-07-18T01:25:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64615609 A United Nations food agency is appealing for more money to help fishermen and farmers in Burma who were hard hit by Cyclone Nargis.The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization issued an appeal ... Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:18:51 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Nargis?rinfoid=64615609 2008-07-17T21:18:51Z