Delta of death

May 7, 2008
Witnesses describe rice fields littered with corpses, while charitable organisations expect death toll to rise as tens of thousands remain missing in wake of Cyclone Nargis
GETTING HELP: Locals helping an injured man on Monday. The area affects by the cyclone is home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57 million people. -- PHOTO: AFP


YANGON - THE area worst affected by the cyclone that struck Myanmar is a vast and populous delta criss-crossed by canals and inlets, factors that made the damage extensive and delivering aid extraordinarily difficult.
Several other reasons have also been cited for the scale of the disaster, including the destruction of mangrove forests that acted as a buffer against the sea, the lack of an early- warning system and a tidal wave that came in the wake of the killer storm.
Based on a satellite map made available by the United Nations, the storm's damage was concentrated over an estimated 30,000-sq-km area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines - less than 5 per cent of the country.
But the affected region is home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57million people.
Aid workers say delivering food, clean water and other supplies to far-flung villages will require an intensive response.
'Our fear is that many in the rural population have been cut off,' said Mr Paul Risley, spokesman in Asia for the World Food Programme, a UN agency. 'In some villages, 90per cent of shelter was destroyed or damaged.'

Remember we learnt about delta formation in the topic 'River'. Deltas are low-lying areas made of acculumated alluvium at the mouth of the river. We know that deltas are precious arable land suitable for growing crops especially wet-rice because of its fertile soil. However, the danger of living on deltas is that the land is prone to hazards such as cyclone and flooding. Myanmar being one of the poorest countries in Asean is again hit by this unfortunate natural hazard. We also learnt that one of the reasons of slow development is because of climate. Countries such as Myanmar will always be slow in their development because natural hazards often destroy infrastructure and lives in the country.
In the article, it also mentions that one of the reasons for the massive destruction is also due to the destruction of mangrove forest. This we learnt in the topic 'natural vegetation', the benefits of natural vegetation such as mangroves. This article links up so many concepts that we learnt in both physical and human Geography. Didn't I tell you that Geography is everywhere every day?