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Myanmar authorities urgently need to relax border entry measures for foreign aid representatives following the weekend's cyclone, a New Zealand aid body says.
State media said Saturday's cyclone killed at least 22,980 people and left 42,119 missing, but United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes said the death toll could rise "very significantly" as food shortages and disease set in.
The New Zealand Council for International Development (CID) executive director David Culverhouse said today relief efforts were being hampered by the country's military regime refusing to expedite visas for international aid workers and customs procedures for aid in kind.
"A failure by the government to properly pass on meteorological warnings and inadequate investment in infrastructure and flood warning systems has also contributed to the scale of the disaster," Mr Culverhouse said.
"This disaster is impacting most heavily on people who are already poor and marginalised.
"Reports of massive food price increases, and of food and roofing materials being sold by the government at prices out of reach of many of the victims is worrying."
The New Zealand Government yesterday committed to an immediate contribution of $500,000 to New Zealand agencies involved in relief operations in Myanmar.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the huge scale of the devastation caused by the cyclone was emerging and the Government's priority was to make sure the assistance reached those most in need.
One New Zealander who was staying in a rural part of Myanmar was still unaccounted for, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said today, while another 14 had been accounted for.
Mr Culverhouse said CID, which works with aid agencies and the New Zealand government, welcomed the response to the disaster from here, but wanted more compliance at the other end.
"We call upon the government of Burma to stop hampering relief efforts," he said.
"We are concerned that survivors of the cyclone face more dangers from contaminated water, lack of food and shelter and malaria in coming weeks and months."
Meanwhile, a veterinary team from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is in neighbouring Thailand awaiting entry authority to provide relief to suffering animals.
WSPA director of disaster management Philip Russell said it was important representatives accessed animals as soon as possible.
"No one else, governments, humanitarian non-government organisations or owners have the resources to care for these animals, most of which are owned by poor impoverished families," Mr Russell said.
"If those that survived die, so too will the livelihoods of thousands of people."
He said it was likely many families would be in the process of selling off their remaining livestock at severely reduced prices to ensure some monetary value for immediate subsistence, mainly because they couldn't keep them alive any longer.
Separating animals into temporary holding pens and providing emergency feed would be needed for surviving livestock.
Meanwhile, wet conditions lowered immune systems, endemic disease such as foot and mouth and overcrowded camps created highly disease-prone and contagious environments.
- NZPA
