Red Cross Boat for Burma Cyclone Victims Sinks

By ELIANE ENGELER / AP WRITER / GENEVA
The Irrawaddy News

The first cargo ship carrying relief supplies for cyclone victims in Burma has sunk, the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) said Sunday.

The ship, which was traveling from the former capital, Rangoon, to Mawlamyinegyun in the Irrawaddy Delta, apparently hit a submerged tree trunk and began to take on water, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement. It sank near Myinka Gone village.

"This is a great loss for the Myanmar [Burma] Red Cross and for the people who need aid so urgently", said Aung Kyaw Htut, who leads the Myanmar Red Cross distribution team.

"This would have been our very first river shipment and it will delay aid for a further day."

The crew members, including four Myanmar Red Cross aid workers, managed to get to safety, the organization said.

The cargo was carrying aid for up to 1,000 people. It included 100 bags of rice, 5,000 liters of drinking water, 10,000 water purification tablets, 200 jerry cans and 30 boxes of clothes. Also on the boat were household items for 30 families, 1,000 bars of soap, 800 pairs of rubber gloves and 1,000 surgical masks.

Locals and aid workers managed to save some of the relief supplies and started to carry them to the nearest town for onward shipment, the IFRC said.

The organization said it was unable to say how much of the cargo had been lost, but rescued food supplies would now be contaminated with river water, it said.

The IFRC's disaster manager in Rangoon, Michael Annear, said the sinking was "a big blow."

"Apart from the delay in getting aid to people we may now have to re-evaluate how we transport that aid," he said.

The IFRC, which coordinates the relief work of the Myanmar Red Cross, has said that so far the humanitarian effort has supported 220,000 people.