This Bulletin summarises the relief and assistance work carried out in the south-west of Myanmar’s Ayeyarwaddy Delta during the second to fourth weeks of May 2008 by teams sent by Cape Negrais Relief.

Dr. Ye Moe Myint on the Pathein River planning his route down to the Delta

Cape Negrais Relief was established in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, on May 10th, by leading business groups in Myanmar to lead relief in the Delta in the areas of Ngaputaw Township and Hainggyi Island. On the same day, Cape Negrais Relief sent a reconnaissance team from Yangon to the lower Ayeyarwaddy Delta, in order to assess the situation there. The advance team included a medical doctor, Dr Ye Moe Myint, of Pun Hlaing International Hospital, together with U Myint Oo, an agricultural consultant from MAGT, an affiliate of YOMA Strategic and U Hla Aung, Assistant Manager from YOMA Bank in Pathein.

The Cape Negrais area is inaccessible at the best of times, with many settlements reachable only by boat. Transport is complicated by a tidal range of 8 feet, shallow deltaic waterways and strong offshore currents in the Bay of Bengal.

What the force of a 150 knot cyclone does to a timber structured house

After a journey from Yangon of 3 and a half hours by road to Pathein, the last road-head to the Delta, it requires 4 hours by shallow draft vessel to reach the north of Alekyun (Middle Island) and another 2 hours to Pyinkayaing at the southern tip. A journey time of up to 8 hours is required to reach Hainggyi Island by boat from Pathein.

	A survivor shows Dr. Ye the height of the water during the second 3-hour phase as the cyclone moved through his house

Cape Negrais is where Cyclone Nargis first made landfall on May 1st – 2nd. Consequently, it was among the worst affected by the storm. The subsequent tidal wave in places attained a height of over 3 metres and a sustained depth of over 1 meter for more than 3 hours in the hours of darkness on May 1st-2nd. It was at this time that many children perished.

Personal belongings 15 feet up in the branches of a tree bear witness to where some unknown villagers clung onto life. During the cyclone’s first two hours, water levels rose to 15 feet in every area it passed through.

The Cape Negrais advance reconnaissance team was among the very first outsiders to reach this area: local officials had already from the first days after the cyclone been actively surveying damage in the area and providing limited immediate relief to survivors.

The first two hours of the cyclone inflicted the greatest damage illustrated by the washed-away base of this pagoda

The first relief dispatched by Cape Negrais Relief was through a team from SPA Motors, led by its Director, Ne Lin Oo. They left Yangon on 12thMay carrying readily consumable foods such as instant noodles. Through the dealer network in Pathein, the team learnt of a shortage of drinking water and dehydration of the initial refugees reaching Pathein from the Delta. Leaving food to be distributed by the Pathein dealers, Ne Lin Oo returned to Yangon, purchased supplies of water purifying tablets and took these down to the Delta.

A Refugee station on Alekyun

Back in Yangon, planning for wider scale relief continued. By the time, the reconnaissance team returned to Yangon, Cape Negrais Relief was ready to expand the mission. As a first step, a support and logistics facility was established in Pathein, including large warehouses close to a jetty. The first international air shipments of aid had already been cleared by Cape Negrais Relief.

Paul Kyaw Thu Tun on the right Project manager from Pun Hlaing Golf Estate, is the leader our team in Thingangon on Alekyun Island, currently our main centre of our relief operations in the Delta

The reconnaissance team returned to Yangon on May 17th to report on the situation and assist in planning for the next stage of relief and assistance work.

On 19th May, the first construction and volunteer team of 20, led by Paul Kyaw Thu Tun, Project Manager of the Pun Hlaing Golf Estate, left Yangon for Alekyun in the Delta.

	Paul with our team of engineers and staff plan the site of the foundation for our prefabricated medical base in Thingangon

They carried initial relief supplies to provide shelter, including roofing materials and prefabricated buildings as well as “shelter boxes”; readily consumable foods such as bags of rice and instant noodles; generators, chain saws and other equipment.

The materials were donated by both local and overseas donors, including materials brought in on international flights covered in earlier Bulletins of Cape Negrais Relief. Thingangon medical base with our survivors’ camp in the background

Working with supportive local officials, the Cape Negrais teams identified suitable sites to set up bases for the relief teams. It was agreed to use prefabricated buildings. Similar prefabricated buildings at YOMA Strategic’s plantations at Maw Tin, to the north of Cape Negrais, had successfully withstood Cyclone Nargis.

A second team consisting of construction workers, led by Aung Thein Win, was next sent to the Cape Negrais peninsula. Using Hainggyi Island as a base, they put up prefabricated buildings at Kyauk Chaung and Kyon Ku villages.

A third team of 20, led by Min Min Khine, left on 23rd May for Magyipin on the northern tip of Alejun. There they distributed relief goods, including tarpaulins and foodstuffs. They also prepared for the setting up of a prefabricated building adjacent to the local station hospital whose roof had been severely damaged by the storm. Even monasteries, some of the strongest buildings in Delta villages, were destroyed by the force of Cyclone Nargis

Pumps were used to clean up around 30 contaminated fresh water ponds in order that they may be refilled with clean water during this year’s rainy season. On 5th June, this team was relieved by a fourth volunteer team of 10, led by Ohn Myint, a construction specialist from Pun Hlaing Golf Estate. Paul – Project manager from Pun Hlaing Golf Estate , who leads our team at Thingangon

The first relief team assembled refugee tent housing at Thinggangon, in the middle of the island, using kits donated by Shelter Box UK. The site was swampy and waterlogged by the cyclone. The team had to construct drainage channels and provide sanitation facilities in order to make the tents habitable, before the refugees moved in. At Thingangon a prefabricated building was put up and is now in use as the medical base of the Cape Negrais medical team.

An orphanage family in Thingangon fending for themselves. These children have been taken in by our team

The next stage of the relief and assistance mission of the Cape Negrais team will be longer-term reconstruction. Local surveys and planning are now underway.

Cape Negrais Relief will shortly unveil plans for sustainable long-term reconstruction.

Our team traveling through Alekyun

Strand Road on Hainggyi Island _ Ships driven ashore crashed home and block the main street