WUNRN
MYANMAR/Burma:
Cyclone-Affected Homemakers Struggle to Get By
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'Life is desperate here," said 27-year-old Zin Mar,
who may now go elsewhere in search of job opportunities |
PYAPON, 8 July 2008 (IRIN)
- Khin Sein’s children stood speechless as their mother, her head held low,
entered the makeshift hut along the banks of the River Pyapon in Myanmar’s
cyclone-affected Ayeyarwady delta.
“I couldn't get the money, children,” she said point
blank.
The forty-five-year-old had spent much of the day trying
to convince money lenders to loan her what she needed so that her children
could attend school - and she could put rice on the table. But that didn’t
happen.
Despite exorbitant interest rates hovering at around 30
percent per month, Khin Sein was viewed as too much of a bad risk.
She and her husband together had once earned close to
US$85 a month; he as a fisherman, she working at the local grocery. That all
changed two months ago when Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving over 138,000 people
dead or missing and affecting 2.4 million of the delta’s 4.2 million
inhabitants. Within seconds, close to one million people in the delta, as well
as neighbouring Yangon Division lost their livelihoods.
A widespread problem
There are scores of homemakers like Khin Sein in the
village of Outkwin in Pyapon, one of the worst hit areas, as well as throughout
the delta, now struggling to get by.
Most village residents had worked in the once thriving
fishing industry, only to see their household incomes vanish in the blink of an
eye.
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A
woman selling vegetables in Labutta. Food prices throughout the Ayeyarwady
Delta have risen in the wake of Cyclone Nargis |
Over two thirds of all the fishing vessels in the
village had been damaged or sunk in the tidal surge that swept the area. It
would take months, if not longer, for most families to recover.
Some cyclone survivors were managing to get by on what
meagre earnings they had; some have become dependent on goodwill and handouts,
whilst others were getting into debt.
Residents of Outkwin said they received rice and oil
twice a month from the local authorities, but complained about the small
quantity.
“Going to a money lender is the one and only way for us
to get cash,” explained 28-year-old Soe Soe, another local housemaker. But
convincing them that they will be able to repay that debt later is another
matter altogether. “Even if we show our willingness to borrow at the agreed
interest rate, it is now harder to convince them [money lenders],” she said.
She has now borrowed more than she can afford in an
effort to buy rice, as well as pay the medical costs for her young son born on
3 May and named Nargis by her neighbours.
“The amount of money… I borrowed now exceeds my
husband's income,” admitted Soe Soe, whose husband earns just $30 per month
from fishing.
Another woman and mother-of-four, whose husband was also
a fisherman, said she could no longer endure the economic hardship and was
considering migrating elsewhere for work: “Life is desperate here. Who can say
that there might not be another storm that will sweep us away next time,”
27-year-old Zin Mar asked. “Now we have no extra income. It's been a long time
since I went to Pyapon market.”
Reduced purchasing power
Since Nargis, the buying power of local residents has
reduced, while the price of food and other basic commodities has gone up.
Although prices have stabilised recently, many commodity prices remain
significantly higher than before the cyclone, or the same as in Yangon, the
country’s largest city and former capital.
Rice prices in Pyapon are the same as in Yangon, though
the price should normally be cheaper as the delta is one of the country’s major
rice bowls.
According to the UN in June, of the 1.3 million hectares
of paddy in the cyclone-hit areas, 60 percent had been affected by the storm.
About 200,000 hectares were too damaged for planting, the UN’s Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
But with rice now being brought in from the north or
areas unaffected by the storm, Pyapon’s rice traders say the price of rice has
doubled. Before Nargis, one kilo of rice was 25 US cents. Today it is 50 cents.
Other commodities have also been badly hit. The
pre-cyclone price of a kilo of salt was 23 US cents. Today it is close to $1.
Despite the price rises and challenges ahead, many
housemakers in the delta hope the worse is now behind them. “If we could
survive the deadly storm and tidal surge, this current hardship is nothing for
us,” said Soe Soe, as she smiled at her son Nargis nearby.