Bangkok: International aid agency Oxfam said the initial estimated death toll of 100,000 in Myanmar as a result of Cyclone Nargis may multiply by up to 15 times if clean water and sanitation are not urgently provided.

Oxfam's Regional Director for East Asia, Sarah Ireland, said that in the coming weeks and months the lives of up to 1.5 million people are in danger in the cyclone-affected zones because of the risk of diseases and a public health catastrophe.

"In the Boxing Day tsunami, 250,000 people lost their lives in the first few hours but we did not see an outbreak of disease because the host governments and the world mobilized a massive aid effort to prevent it happening. We have to do the same for the people of Myanmar," she said here yesterday.

She was speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand where dozens of foreign journalists and aid workers waiting for visas to enter Myanmar came to hear the latest situation on the ground.

Ireland said the Myanmar government must lift visa restrictions on international aid agencies wanting to assist disaster affected people.

"Oxfam and others need permission to work in Myanmar. We have the skills and expertise to save lives. We are here to help. We hope international communities will persuade the government to give us the access," she said.

Citing evidence from previous experiences in disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Pakistan earthquake in 2005, Oxfam said that without an immediate injection of life-saving aid such as clean water sources, up to 1.5 million people were at immediate risk from a public health crisis.
Source : PTI