How the 'rice bowl of Asia' was emptied

MATTHEW TREVISAN
With a report from Reuters and AFP

Before disaster struck, the Irrawaddy delta was known for its lush paddies that provided fish and rice to most of Myanmar

Before Friday's devastating cyclone, Tin Maung Htoo remembered the Irrawaddy delta as a place full of trees and lush paddies that supplied most of Myanmar's rice and fish.

"This is the area that feeds the whole country," said Mr. Htoo, the executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma. As of yesterday, he still hadn't heard from any of his three brothers living in Rangoon, in the delta's eastern-most region, the area that was ground zero for cyclone Nargis.

As a high-school student, Mr. Htoo was forced to flee the country formerly known as Burma during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. He continued protesting against the military junta for six years - living first in Karen State, east of Rangoon, then in Bangkok - before he was arrested on immigration charges by Thai authorities. After Mr. Htoo spent three years in prison, Amnesty International lobbied for his release, and he has been living in Canada since 1996.

Mr. Htoo, 35, spoke regularly with his brothers in Rangoon, a densely populated city whose architecture dates back to Myanmar's British imperial rule.

"There are a few people who live in the cities that are well-off," Mr. Htoo said, "but the majority of them are very, very poor."

The Rangoon region and Irrawaddy delta were once known as the "rice bowl of Asia." The delta is a triangle of fertile land, mangrove swamps and tidal estuaries at the mouth of the Irrawaddy, Myanmar's longest river and its most important trade artery.

"It's a fertile region not only for rice but for fish as well, because the river comes down from the north to the south. ... So farmers, especially those who grow rice, will have a hard time because there is nothing left for them to eat," Mr. Htoo said.

Stretching from scattered islands in the Bay of Bengal to the southeast port city of Rangoon, the delta's base is about 240 kilometres long, its western flank about 290 kilometres. It is crisscrossed by a vast network of streams that swell to become small lakes during the May-October monsoon rains. Their muddy waters empty into the Andaman Sea.

Over the past 150 years, huge areas of mangrove forest have been cleared and used to grow rice. The destruction of those forests, which served as a buffer from the sea, is partly to blame for the massive cyclone death toll, the head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said yesterday.

"Why the impact is so severe is because of the increase of the population," said Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, to which military-ruled Myanmar belongs. That has led to an "encroachment into the mangrove forests which used to serve as buffer between the rising tide, between big waves and storms and the residential area," he said in a speech in Singapore. "All those lands have been destroyed. Human beings are now direct victims of such natural forces."

The delta was jungle and high grass when it was annexed as Lower Burma by Britain in 1852 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War.

The colonial rulers, in charge until independence in 1948, encouraged migration and rice cultivation in the delta, commercializing its once feudal lands. Before independence, Myanmar was the world's largest exporter of rice, most of it grown in the delta.

Leaving the door open to disaster

Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has blamed encroachment into the mangrove forests for the high death toll from cyclone Nargis.

HISTORY

Exploitation of the forests began in 1942 to satisfy the military demands of the Second World War and continued throughout the insurgent period to 1972.

Complexroot system reduces bank erosion.

Wave energy may be reduced by 75 per cent during its passage through 200 metres of mangrove forest.

CURRENT THREATS

Roughly half the world's mangrove area has been lost since 1900 as a result of clearances for developments such as shrimp farms.

Lowlands converted to rice farms

Rising ocean levels kill trees by making the mud at the roots too salty

Increased population

The forests provide a filter for agricultural runoff such as fertilizers.

EFFECT

The formerly thick forest of mangroves is now a low forest of fewer, much smaller trees. This increases bank erosion and reduces coastal storm protection.

TONIA COWAN, BRICE HALL/THE GLOBE AND MAIL; SOURCE: NETHERLANDS ORGANIZATION FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (NWO), UN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM