VZCZCXRO8350
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH RUEHTRO
DE RUEHGO #0336/01 1290950
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 080950Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY RANGOON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7519
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1145
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4692
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 8233
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 5795
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3664
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1552
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000336 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR USAID/OFDA, EAP/MLS, S/ES-O-CMS, DS/CC AND 
DS/IP/EAP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID BM
SUBJECT: BAGO DIVISION: IT COULD BE WORSE 
 
REF: RANGOON 335 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Southern Bago Division, among the areas 
that the Burmese government declared a disaster area, 
suffered some damage from Cyclone Nargis, although 
significantly less than the Irrawaddy Delta.  The roads to 
and from Bago were clear and relatively undamaged.  The city 
of Bago appeared normal except for a few fallen trees and 
damaged homes.  The situation south of Bago, however, was far 
more severe.  Prices for construction materials have tripled 
since the May 3 cyclone.  Food, fuel, and clean water was 
scarce and prices continued to rise.  They have not received 
any outside assistance.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) FOOD: On May 7, Poloff visited some areas that 
Cyclone Nargis affected in Bago and Rangoon Divisions.  The 
cyclone hit the area at the time of the rice harvest in these 
areas and flooded most rice paddies.  In an effort to salvage 
their crops, farmers have turned highways into areas where 
they can dry rice. Even four days after the storm, however, 
rice stocks smelled moldy and appeared brown.  One woman who 
was spreading rice on the highway with her feet told us that 
the rice itself was ripe, but unless they dry it quickly, 
they will lose the harvest. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Maykha Poultry Farm just fifteen miles east of 
Rangoon suffered considerable damage.  Mark Eman, head of 
operations at the farm, estimated that his farm suffered 
about $200,000 in damage and a loss of 60 to 70 percent of 
his chickens.  Joko, another associate at the farm, showed us 
a barn that houses young chickens.  The roof of the barn was 
gone and he said that even the remaining chickens will not 
survive unless they get better shelter.  There were already 
bags of dead chickens stacked at the door of the barn.  The 
farm supplies about 30 percent of chicken to Rangoon, he 
said, and even though prices are rising in Rangoon, he 
preferred that they stay lower or people will not buy it. 
Chicken prices have already doubled since the storm.  Eman 
expected that things will get worse before they get better 
and he did not expect the situation to improve for months. 
He believed, however, that people are unlikely to riot as a 
result of food shortages.  These people are too spread out 
and they will be too busy trying to get food on the table to 
riot, he said. 
 
¶4. (SBU) FUEL: Everyone we spoke with brought up the shortage 
of fuel throughout the area.  A few miles outside of Rangoon, 
fuel stations have opened to buses and taxis for the first 
time in several days.  The line to the station was 1.5 miles 
long on the taxi side and 2.5 miles long on the bus side. 
Eman said that between May 3 and 7, diesel prices skyrocketed 
for his farm to 10,000 kyat ($9) per gallon.  Besides high 
prices, he said, people must have friends who sell diesel in 
order to get any.  Even in Bago, which appeared normal 
compared to surrounding areas, the price of one gallon of 
gasoline was 8,500 kyat ($7.75), about the same as it was in 
Rangoon.  (Note: diesel prices in Rangoon have since dropped 
to 8,000 kyat per gallon and gasoline prices have dropped to 
7,000 kyat per gallon.) 
 
¶5. (SBU) SHELTER: Throughout southern Bago and eastern 
Rangoon Divisions, many people have lost their homes.  Many 
of the homes outside of major cities consisted of bamboo 
poles and siding and thatched roofs, which villagers replace 
each year at this time in anticipation of the monsoon season. 
 These houses sit in the middle of paddy fields, which are 
now flooded, and many, especially in the hardest-hit areas, 
completely collapsed or blew away.  A few village school 
buildings that retained at least part of their roofs served 
as shelters for those who had lost their homes.  These 
schools were extremely crowded, sometimes holding forty 
people in a single room. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Piles of fresh thatch and bamboo poles were being 
sold on the sides of the highways as people sought to clean 
up and rebuild their homes.  Eman told us, however, that the 
 
RANGOON 00000336  002 OF 002 
 
 
prices of these supplies were triple what they had been 
before the storm.  The supplies that he will need to rebuild 
his poultry farm, such as tin roofing, plastic sheeting, and 
nails, also went for three times their previous rates and 
were more difficult to find. 
 
¶7. (SBU) WATER: On the outskirts of Rangoon and south of 
Bago, the prices of bottled water rose 60 percent in the four 
days since the storm.  Eman mentioned safe drinking water as 
key to ensuring that people stay healthy in the aftermath of 
the storm.  In small villages, however, drinking water is 
always scarce and people generally obtain it by boiling 
ground water.  Now with the ground water contaminated with 
dirt and debris, people will have a harder time providing for 
their drinking, cooking and sanitary needs and disease will 
likely spread, particularly in smaller villages.  While there 
were no reported deaths in the area at present, he believed 
the death toll could rise as people become ill from 
waterborne disease. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: The situation in southern Bago and eastern 
Rangoon Divisions was not as devastating as the reports 
coming from the Irrawaddy Delta.  However, these people also 
need assistance to rebuild homes and businesses, feed their 
families, and get clean water.  The GOB was nowhere in 
evidence providing any assistance, and they have told donors 
not to worry about Bago and other places along the storm 
track east of Rangoon.  We can see the GOB has done little in 
Rangoon, and has barely touched the Delta.  Cyclone Nargis 
has created many more victims than the GOB is prepared to 
recognize, but they do exist.  End Comment. 
VILLAROSA