It was a little over one year ago on May 2nd, 2008, when the devastating Cyclone Nargis struck the fertile farmlands of the Irrawaddy Delta in Burma (legally named Myanmar by the ruling military government) killing an estimated 140,000 people and leaving over two million homeless.

Neither the state-run journal The New Light of Myanmar nor the Burmese government held any ceremony to commemorate the victims; the one year anniversary of the disaster did not even earn a brief mention.

One year after Cyclone Nargis the humanitarian situation on the Irrawaddy Delta remains dire

Reconstruction has hardly begun in the area while half a million survivors still remain in make-shift shelters, though many of the area’s rice paddies and its water supply remain contaminated with ocean water from the storm’s tidal surges. The tidal surges caused by Nargis were as high as three and a half meters and reached as far inland as 40 kilometers.

While charities and foreign governments have provided roughly $315 million in food aid and emergency assistance for the victims, several international organizations are requesting an additional $690 million over a three year period to assist in the rebuilding of the region and assistance of survivors: amongst them the United Nations, the Association of South East Asian Nations, and the Burmese government.

The military government of Burma was heavily criticized in the days following the arrival of Cyclone Nargis primarily due to its tight restrictions on allowing international relief agencies access to the victims; the Burmese government continues to maintain that only 85,000 people were killed in the cyclone, whereas UN estimates place the number closer to 140,000.

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