NEW YORK, USA, 8 May 2008 -​-​ Three mil­lion wa­ter-​pu­rifi­ca­tion tablets are on their way to Myan­mar to help fam­i­lies in the Ir­rawad­dy Delta cope with the po­ten­tial­ly dead­ly af­ter-​ef­fects of Cy­clone Nar­gis.

The Unit­ed Na­tions says the sit­u­a­tion is be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly pre­car­i­ous, with up to 1 mil­lion peo­ple af­fect­ed. There are fears that the death toll could reach 100,000.

Ac­cord­ing to UNICEF Myan­mar Of­fi­cer in Charge Jau­ni­ta Vasquez, as­sess­ment teams have wit­nessed widespread flood­ing and dam­age, with trees up­root­ed and homes and schools de­stroyed. There is lit­tle safe wa­ter or elec­tric­i­ty, chil­dren are on the streets and the rice har­vest has been ru­ined.

"Peo­ple have lost ev­ery­thing," she said.

To read the full sto­ry, vis­it: http://www.unicef.org/in­foby­coun­try/myan­mar_43877.html