There are encouraging signs that the people of Myanmar are recovering, albeit slowly, in the aftermath of Cyclone 
Nargis which hit the country last month.
Asean field teams sent out to survey badly hit areas have reported encouraging scenes of farmers going back to what was left of their padi field, planting seeds in whatever little land they can find.
While food stocks have been depleted – with more than 45 per cent saying they have no food left or just enough food to last a day – many residents are turning to the land to scavenge for whatever food they can find.
Some, the teams reported, were hunting “water field rodents” or padi rats, spearing them in the padi fields.
Others were selling the meager possessions they had left to rebuild their business.
“This is not pretty, but it is about people making do,” one team member wrote in the reports.
These were some of the findings of the assessment teams that were jointly sent out by Asean, the Myanmar government and the United Nations after a donor conference was held in Yangon on May25.
The team’s reports were presented to the Asean Roundtable in Yangon.
Some 350 people have spent the last three weeks surveying more than 380 villages in the Irrawaddy delta, which bore the brunt of the cyclone’s fury.
They found villagers rebuilding not only their homes, but also the areas around around it. Some fill potholes in roads with rocks, grinding them down to make them level, while others are reopening roadside stalls.
Farmers have also started planting rice, tomatoes and eggpants.
“Everywhere, there is activity,” wrote one team.
“The cyclone-damaged shops are open for business; fruit hawkers line the roads and workmen busy themselves repairing smashed houses.
One team even reported people catching the latest Euro Cup 2008 matches on television, and young men strumming guitars and singing at the roadside.
The signs of recovery are a stark contrast to the alarming warnings sounded by aid agencies in the first few weeks after the disaster, when the Myanmar government had refused foreign aid.
Many experts had then warned of death tolls rising warned of death tolls rising as a result of disease, starvation and exposure to the elements. So far, it appears, the predictions have not come true.
“They’re generally okay, they’re recovering” one local journalist who did not want to be named said of survivors. “But what’s needed now is more food, clothes, shelter, everything.”
But the worst is not over despite positive developments reported by the assessment teams.
They said widespread cough, fever and diarrhoea – the most common diseases – affected at least one in three villagers surveyed.
Almost two in three lack access to clean water, and now depend on rainwater; the ponds that they used to rely on have become too salty because of the seawater.
Many farmers and fisherman have been left unemployed, their sources of income literally swept away.
Making the aid effort even more difficult is the heavy rain that continues to pour during the monsoon season, turning already muddy tracks into slush and causing floods to inundate more homes.
Aid trucks, said the assessment teams, were losing up to half a day caused by bad weather.
The local journalist also said that rural areas, such as those accessible only by boat, in particular were not getting the aid they needed because of bad weather.
All these, noted one assessment team, pointed to a slow recovery.
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