ACTED Myanmar - While continuing with planned livelihoods activities, ACTED - now active in 8 village tracts and covering almost 10,000 families - is exploring ways to deal with the potential onset of a second emergency in the Ayeyarwady delta.

Much progress has been made in the Nargis-affected delta of Myanmar. Although some agencies have phased out, and others are still struggling to access funding, across the region many agencies are scaling up from emergency assistance to livelihoods support schemes. Cash for work, agricultural training and input distribution, fisheries and livestock restocking are the main focus of NGOs working in livelihoods.

However, there are still urgent needs - old and newly emerging - which require attention by the assistance community. The focus now is on water shortage fears.

The main issue of the day amongst NGOs and donors operating in the Cyclone Nargis-affected delta is that of water shortage. Drinking water ponds which met the needs of villagers for consumption and domestic use throughout the dry season, and which are essentially rain water catchments scattered throughout the villages, are feared this year not to be able to provide adequate water for the drinking needs of families. Although ponds throughout the delta were cleaned by agencies, salt intrusion and contamination continue to affect the quality of water, rendering many ponds undrinkable. Additionally, household storage capacities were also severely curtailed as the large ceramic pots used for keeping water were broken and clay pots used for filtering and storing water were damaged.

The concern, now that the last of the monsoon rains are falling, is that come December and beyond, families will not have enough drinking water, let alone water for domestic purposes. This will have a greater effect as families will be stretched to provide water also for livestock and vegetable cultivation - major areas of intervention for many NGOs who are providing inputs to increase food security.

2 village tracts where ACTED is intervening - Yway and Sa Lu Seik - faced water shortages annually prior to the cyclone, but the coping mechanisms used - collection of water from upstream, filtration, purchasing of water from vendors - are no longer feasible with the damages sustained to water storage and transport equipment. While some agencies are bringing in reverse osmosis and water filtration plants, ACTED favours a low-cost approach that supports traditional coping mechanisms - in particular providing boats, equipment and hygiene training to water vendors and building water storage capacity at the household level. Although subsidised, water users will be required to pay a small fee (about 10 cents for 22.5 liters), ensuring that the system is sustainable in the long term as well as promoting the value of water amongst users in the short term. This will also present the opportunity to promote hygiene and water quality standards amongst both vendors and users which will continue to have an impact in the years to come.

An assessment has recently been completed by AMEU to understand the scope of the possible crisis, and ACTED is exploring opportunities in regards to how best to support communities in the coming months.

Category: News on November 17th, 2008