By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN humanitarians on Tuesday have been rushing to support severely deprived and traumatized victims of Myanmar earthquake victims and warned that the window for lifesaving response is closing as the death toll rising in Myanmar after the quake tragedy.
Julia Rees, Deputy Representative of the UNICEF in Myanmar described seeing massive needs rising by the hour, after a 7.7 magnitude quake.
“Entire communities have been flattened,” she said with children and families sleeping out in the open with no homes to return to.
“I met children who were in shock after witnessing their homes collapsed or the death of a family member… some have been separated from their parents and others are unaccounted for,” she explained.
According to the country’s military junta the death toll has risen to around 2,000, hundreds unaccounted for and thousands injured after 72 hours of the quake rocked Mandalay and Sagaing regions as well as Nay Pyi Taw and southern Shan state.
“The window for lifesaving response is closing,” Ms. Rees said, while across the affected areas, families face acute shortages of clean water, food and medical supplies. But conditions remain extremely challenging as aid teams are working “without electricity or sanitation, sleeping outside, like the communities we serve”.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that local search and rescue teams, supported by international rescue units from a number of countries including China, India, Russia, Thailand and Bangladesh, have been “intensifying their efforts” particularly in central Myanmar, which has continued to experience aftershocks.
Top relief chief and the head of the OCHA, Tom Fletcher reiterated in a post on X that apart from heavy damage to infrastructure the response “has been hampered by lack of funding.”
He said the UN is in contact with Myanmar authorities on how the international community can do more, with overseas aid budgets cut in Washington and many European capitals.
Top humanitarian official on the ground, Marcoluigi Corsi, visited the capital Nay Pyi Taw said that as the critical window for finding survivors under the rubble was narrowing, conditions in the affected areas continued to deteriorate.
“You have no electricity, you have no running water,” he said, while people were battling the summer heat. “Often there are aftershocks and people are scared to go inside their homes,” he added.
Dr. Fernando Thushara, the representative of the WHO in Myanmar, said that in Nay Pyi Taw, he saw hospitals “overwhelmed with patients”.
“The medical supplies were running dry. There were electricity disruptions in some hospitals and shortages of running water,” he said.
He added that in some cases power generators were not working and hospitals were short on fuel.
Dr. Thushara warned that a lack of fresh water and sanitation could fuel outbreaks of infectious diseases “unless we control them very quickly”.
He recalled that a few months back, several townships in Mandalay had been affected by cholera. About 800 cases of the water-borne disease had been reported until February across nine states and regions in Myanmar, while other infectious diseases such as dengue, hepatitis, malaria may spread further.
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch stressed that Myanmar is “reeling” from four years of conflict sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Mr. Corsi said that in the past few years it has suffered a cyclone and massive flooding and the dire health situation is not the only crisis confronting the people of Myanmar..
Mr. Baloch spoke of a “double tragedy” for the people of Myanmar, highlighted the fact that even before the devastating earthquake hit, all the affected areas already hosted 1.6 million displaced people.
Mr. Corsi stressed that the disaster-affected communities’ resilience is now highly compromised. Close to 20 million people across the country were already in need of humanitarian assistance before the earthquake hit and over 15 million were going hungry.
UN’s $1.1 billion humanitarian appeal for Myanmar only 5% funded. “This is time…for the world to step up and support the people of Myanmar,” he concluded.
The humanitarian situation is growing increasingly dire – entire communities have been reduced to rubble, infrastructure is shattered and tens of thousands remain in urgent need of aid, UN agencies stated.
WFP swiftly launched relief operations, but ongoing conflict and funding shortfalls pose serious challenges.
Michael Dunford, WFP Country Director, described the destruction as overwhelming.
“As you drive through the streets, you can see very quickly just the impact of this terrible, terrible earthquake… you hear awful stories that really speak to the need for the international community to respond and respond quickly.”
He said with food, shelter, and medical aid in critically short supply, WFP and other agencies are calling for immediate funding to sustain relief efforts.
“Without funding, we cannot do what we need to do… we cannot meet the needs of the people of Myanmar.” Mr. Dunford warned.
He elaborated that the immense challenges facing survivors and aid workers, the impact of ongoing conflict and why urgent global action is needed to prevent further tragedy.
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