BANGKOK, Thailand - A United Nations decision to end aid flights to Burma next month could hurt relief efforts already struggling to reach millions of survivors with adequate food and water, humanitarian groups said Friday.
The UN plans to stop aid flights between Thailand's Don Muang airport and Burma's commercial capital, Yangon, on Aug. 10 and withdraw the last five UN helicopters that have been ferrying relief supplies to the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta. Five other helicopters have already stopped flying.
Without the helicopters, relief groups will be forced to depend on boats and trucks to get supplies to the delta. The cargo at Don Muang will be transported by sea.
"It is a bit of a blow not to have the helicopters guaranteed," World Vision emergency co-ordination specialist Ashley Clements said by telephone from Burma.
"We're already dealing with a load that we didn't have enough helicopters for, so now the pressure will be compounded even more," he said. "If we have to go by road it means that supplies will be delayed."
Christine Kahmann, a spokeswoman for Action Against Hunger, agreed that ending the flights would hurt the relief effort.
The UN World Food Program's Paul Risley said the move to end the flights is a routine step as relief efforts in Burma shift to reconstruction following the May 2-3 cyclone that killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 more missing, according to the government.
The UN helicopters have allowed relief workers to reach remote stretches of the flooded delta that were cut off when the cyclone hit.
UN officials and aid groups have criticized Burma's military junta for its slow response to the disaster and for restricting access to the delta, saying it prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching survivors.
The UN says many survivors still lack adequate food and water.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said last week that one out of two families in Myanmar have food supplies of only about one day or less and some 60,000 children are at risk of malnutrition. He said the cyclone wiped out 42 per cent of the nation's overall food stocks.
