Cyclone Giri - Two Years On - Burma Action Ireland

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Cyclone Giri: Two Years On to provide fishing equipment including fishing boats and nets. But we are not sure whether this will make the people from our village tract a reality. In fact, many families in our village tract are still in desperate need of help even for their daily food and rebuilding efforts of their broken livelihoods badly damaged. Q: What is the current situation of education for the children in your village tract A: There is only primary education in our village tract. That means the children from our village tract have to continue their middle and high school education in other places after the primary education in their respective villages. But most of the families from our village tract are not able to support their children to pursue the higher education of middle and high schools mostly after the Cyclone Giri. The villagers are now urgently in needs of support for the stationery, school uniforms, walking boots, etc. of their children. Q: What is the current situation of health care in your village tract A: There is only one clinic in our entire village tract. So the clinic is not able to give enough medical treatment of the populations in our village tract. Worse there is almost lack of medicines and qualified and experienced nurses or medics in the clinic. There are many children who are infected with small pox. Now that the rainy season is approaching, we need more medical support to give treatment to those who are infected with diarrhea, dysentery, malaria, and so on, since these kinds of infected diseases in our areas or entire Arakan State are common in the rainy season (June- September). Q: Do you have anything to say to the government and INGOs A: Of course, I really want to say to our government that they should maily give necessary support to the most Giri affected people for the rebuilding efforts of their broken livelihoods. Similarly the international community should also provide some humanitarian assistance to the needy and deprived people of Giri most affected community for the rebuilding efforts in their families’ main businesses of agricultural farming and fishing as well as some support for the education and health care of the rural folks. Without any support of capital investment from the government or international community, I’m sure that most and badly affected community will not be able to rebuild their damaged livelihoods to normal. 10. Gender: Male Place of Interview: Kyaukphru Town Age: 50 Date of interview: 25 September 2012 Profession: Fishing businessman Type of interview: Paper Q: Where were you when the Cyclone Giri hit Arakan Was your family affected by the cyclone A: Yes I was in Kyaukphru Town during the Cyclone Giri and my family and business were badly affected by the cyclone. I had the business of buying fish, shrimps, etc. in Prumwun Village, Mraybon Township. Two days after the cyclone, I went to Prumwun Village to check my business of fishery products. When I arrived in the village, all of my possessions of two houses, motorboats, fishing nets were gone by the cyclone. Worse two of my daughters living in the village were in famine and I saw there were many corpses floating along the banks of the rivers and the sea. After the cyclone, I had no idea on what to do, as I lost 10 million Kyats (US$ 10,000) that was spent on my business of buying fish and shrimps. Q: Are you able to regain your lost business to normal A: It’s really difficult to regain my business to normal under current situation. I think it may take some time to be able to operate the original situation of my business. Compared to the past years, there is lesser catch of fish in the rivers and sea. Before the cyclone, there were many people who were catching fish in the sea through their fishing paddle boats and motor boats, there are fewer people who are catching fishing now. That means most fishermen in the village are not able to catch fish, since they lost all their fishing boats and nets during the cyclone, and there is also very much lesser fish in the sea now. 91
Arakan Human Rights and Development Organisation So my business of buying fishery products is not workable and profitable as before, since there are very few fishermen, who have owned trawlers to catch huge catch of fish, shrimps, etc. in the sea that severely affects my business. Q: Compared to the past years, what about this year of catching fish in the sea A: The fish in the sea is fewer that the fishermen are able to catch very less fish. That means some certain kinds of fish species normally caught in the sea are not found in this year and the sale of fish is not good and profitable. In Kyaukphru, there are many fishermen who owned small and big trawlers from different areas of Arakan State or Burma proper and even foreign trawlers, and many business people who are doing the fishing business in the past years. But you cannot see many of those business people compared to the past few years, as there are fewer fishermen who have owned big fishing boats and trawlers that can catch much fish and is also lesser fish in the sea. Q: What is current situation of fishermen and their livelihoods A: Actually I usually travel to do the business of the fisheries through sea and land. Almost entire township of Kyaukphru do this fishing business of different kinds including catching big and smaller fish, shrimps, lobsters, etc. Since there are fewer fishermen and is lesser fish stocks in the sea, there are fewer business people of this kind. I can say that 70% of fishermen is decreased in number compared to the past few years. After the cyclone, there is a huge migration of fisher folks from Kyaukphru Township to the places especially to Thailand, where they thought that they are able to find better job opportunities. There are many fishermen who don’t have any capital investment in buying their lost fishing boats and nets during the cyclone. So lots of fishermen have become hand-to-mouth now. This severely affects the fishermen livelihoods of social, education and health care. 11. Gender: Female Place of Interview: Kapichaung Village, Kyaukphru Township Age: 45 Date of interview: 27 September 2012 Profession: Businesswoman Type of interview: Paper Q: Was your village affected by the Cyclone Giri A: Yes our village was quite affected by the cyclone. The roofs of the houses were uprooted and some houses were partially destroyed though houses in our village were not severely damaged. But all the plantation gardens including different kinds of fruit trees and the embankments of the paddy fields were severely damaged and submerged with salt water that still very much affects the decreasing of rice production until this year. Q: Did you repair the broken embankments during the cyclone How many embankments does your village have A: Actually the embankments were repaired by the support from some NGOs. There were only three embankments in our entire village. But a rich person, who did the salt business there, owns two. But the embankment of the salt field was destroyed by the cyclone. So the fields can’t be grown rice now due to salty soil. There is only one embankment for village owned now to protect against the salt water from the sea. Q: Is it sufficient with the rice produced by your village for the people in the village A: Actually, the village can’t produce enough rice for the needs of the population in the village. And even our village was not able to produce adequate rice when there were three embankments for the paddy fields of the village. So how can the only one embankment be able to produce enough rice for the population needs of the village! So the rice production from our village has covered only one-third for the total population over 1,000 villagers: the rice needed for the two-third of entire population in the village is bought from Kyaukphru Town. Q: What is the current situation of livelihoods in your village A: As businesswoman in the village, it’s not good for the sale of households needs including rice. That means the people in our village have become poorer, severely affecting the economy of village. So there 92
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Arakan Human Rights and Development
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[ P A R T I ] Arakan Human Rights a
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Arakan Human Righ
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PRELIMINARY REMARKS Arakan Human Ri
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Giri affected futureless children A
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Table 2.2: 2010 Health Indicators o
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Cyclone Giri - Two Years On - Burma Action Ireland

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