YANGON, June 7: A severe shortage of housing has left hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Myanmar exposed to heavy rains as the monsoon season begins, according to aid agencies.

The United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned on Saturday there was an “urgent need” for tarpaulins to provide the estimated 1.5 million homeless survivors with temporary shelter. Otherwise, they warned, the threats of hunger and disease could intensify.

“Exposure to the elements five weeks after a disaster of this magnitude has to be a major concern,” said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the IFRC. “People are in a weakened condition. They are sick; they are hungry. Without shelter, their whole situation is seriously exacerbated.”

The UN estimates a total of 2.4 million people were affected when Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2-3, and warns that more than 1 million of those still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach Irrawaddy delta.

UN officials and aid groups have criticised the Myanmar regime for hindering access to the delta, saying it has prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching desperate survivors.

The UN has said access could greatly improve if the country’s military junta would accept American offers of support which include the use of 22 military helicopters to ferry aid to remote locations.

The USS Essex group, which includes four ships, 5,000 US military personnel and the helicopters, abandoned plans on Thursday to deliver aid to the delta after repeated efforts to broker a compromise with the junta failed.

The US military, however, said it is keeping 22 helicopters on standby in case Myanmar’s ruling junta reversed its rejection of such help for cyclone victims, saying the aircraft could reach survivors within three days.

With only seven Myanmar government helicopters reportedly flying, relief supplies are mostly being transported along dirt roads and then by boat. International aid agencies say boats able to navigate the delta’s canals are scarce and efforts to import vehicles have been hampered by government red tape.

“Of the 1 million or 1.5 million people in need of relief support, we think that between 450,000 to 750,000 are in emergency need,” said Lt-Gen John Goodman, commander of Marine Forces Pacific and head of the US relief operation for Myanmar.

They could be reached “over the course of a three-day period” by American helicopters and landing craft, he said in telephone interview from a temporary US staging area at Utapao, Thailand.—AP