Burma (Myanmar) aid logjam riles donors
UN members rejected a proposal Thursday to forgo junta permission and force aid in.
from the May 9, 2008 edition
Page 3 of 3
But "the cyclone hit the wooden and thatched dwelling[s] across the delta without warning at 150 m.p.h., and it lasted for 6 hours or more," he continued.
The controversy highlights the fact that Burma has one of the most poorly administered disaster response systems in the region. Some experts say it may have none at all.
"According to our records, they don't have any preparedness measures," says Brigitte Leoni, a spokeswoman for the UN disaster reduction agency in Geneva. "But the problem we have is, we can't get in to the country, so we just don't know."
Building cyclone preparedness
Burma's situation contrasts sharply with regional neighbors', experts say, whose example Burma should now follow.
Prior to the 2004 tsunami, Indian Ocean countries, including Indonesia, lacked an early warning system and were heavily criticized for failing to alert their citizens to the arrival of the tsunami. After the disaster, the United Nations helped set up an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system, which uses underwater seismic sensors to relay information to monitoring centers around the region.
Bangladesh has set up one of the world's most advanced and effective cyclone response systems, observers say. The key to its success is people like M.A. Wahab. He runs Bangladesh's Cyclone Preparedness Program, created in 1972 by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. Last year, his army of volunteers were ready five days before cyclone Sidr even hit Bangladesh's coast, and they rushed victims to shelters. About 3,000 people were killed by that cyclone, compared with 500,000 people in a 1970 cyclone.
"Our volunteers have an organizational structure up to the village level. They're from the community and the community knows them so they can issue information quickly," says Mr. Wahab, speaking from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Good response and preparation systems require strong political commitment from authorities, says Ms. Leoni, of the UN disaster relief agency. "There needs to be political will and the government needs to invest money," she says.
• Danna Harman contributed from Tel Aviv.
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