Dangers grow for Myanmar quake survivors, health system ‘overwhelmed’

This article is published in association with United Nations.

In earthquake-shattered central Myanmar, people are sleeping in the streets in fear of buildings collapsing, facing early monsoon rains and the risk of waterborne diseases, the UN warned on Tuesday.

Ten days after a 7.7 magnitude quake levelled buildings and buckled bridges across central Myanmar, the latest death toll has passed 3,500 and is “likely to rise”, said Titon Mitra, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Representative in the country, speaking from the devastated city of Mandalay.

He said that the response has moved into a “tragic phase” shifting from rescue to recovery efforts.

Well over 4,000 people have been injured in the quakes last week and more than 80 per cent of buildings have been damaged – especially in the major townships of Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway.

“The health system is completely overwhelmed, hospitals are unable to cope with the number of patients they’re dealing with,” Mr. Mitra said, adding that medicines and healthcare items are in “incredibly short supply”.

According to the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA), more than 500,000 people across the country have been left without access to life-saving health care.

UNDP’s Mr. Mitra also stressed that the risk of waterborne diseases is very high because urban water pipe systems are broken and water storage facilities are damaged.

“Sanitation is now becoming a big issue as people who have been forced out of their homes are resorting to open defecation,” he warned.

The disaster has been compounded by intense rainfall which started earlier than expected last week in Mandalay, impacting the response and worsening the living conditions of homeless survivors.

Monsoon threat

Myanmar’s meteorology department forecasts rain and strong winds in large parts of the country through Friday.

Mr. Mitra said that shelter is a major issue. People are “fearful” to go back into their damaged homes and are sleeping on the streets at night, “often without any sort of cover”, he told journalists in Geneva via video link.

Food is also in huge demand as markets are “severely disrupted” in Sagaing and Magway, people don’t have incomes and there are “signs of hyperinflation in place”, he said.

Mr. Mitra said the UN system is mobilized and has conducted initial rapid needs assessments. UNDP is also evaluating the integrity of buildings to determine if they are safe to use.

This uncertainty has impacted a hospital in Sagaing where “all the patients are in the car park in 40°C heat”, he said. “If we consider the building can accommodate them, then we want to move them back as quickly as possible.”

Hostilities have not stopped entirely but he expressed optimism that aid can reach all those in need, following the ceasefire announced days after the disaster by the military and resistance groups.

Aid access plea

It remains the case that the military authorities control many affected areas and coordinate the provision of support.

“With an active civil war, we have to make sure that the aid, if it’s coordinated by military authorities, is going to areas which may be in resistance control,” he insisted.

The earthquake disaster – second only to Cylone Nargis in 2008 that killed more than 130,000 people – has compounded chronic and “very deep vulnerabilities” in Myanmar, the UNDP official said.

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The country’s people have already suffered more than four years of fighting sparked by the military junta’s February 2021 coup d’état.

Prior to the earthquakes, nearly 20 per cent of the rice fields were already lost to conflict, more than 3.5 million people had been forced to flee their homes, over 15 million were facing hunger and an estimated 19.9 million were in need of assistance.

“I hope… when the cameras turn away from Myanmar, as they inevitably will and have in the past, that this doesn’t return to being a neglected crisis”, he concluded.