People in western Myanmar struggle with shortages

By Biswajyoti Das

TAHAM, Myanmar (Reuters) - They may have escaped Cyclone Nargis, but people in western Myanmar are struggling to cope with soaring inflation and food shortages in the wake of the disaster that struck the Irrawaddy Delta food bowl.

Prices for basic foods have more than tripled in western parts of the former Burma, heavily dependent on supplies from the delta where the May 2 storm wrecked rice fields, killed livestock and forced thousands of farmers off the land.

It may get worse.

People have begun hoarding rice, salt and edible oils as they prepare for the arrival of the monsoon sometime next month, which will make roads impassable and supplies even scarcer.

"The situation is very bad here," said Myo, a 60-year-old retired teacher in Taham, a small town about three hours' drive from the Indian border.

"People have no money to buy food, medicine and baby food," she said. "The government seems completely unmoved by the suffering of the people."

A state pension amounts to a cup of tea a month, but a kilogram of rice sells for 1,500 kyats, three times higher than before the cyclone. The price of little more than a litre of edible oil has nearly tripled to 8,000 kyats.

"You can well imagine my difficulty," Myo said.