Britons donate £8m in cyclone aid

Aid groups say more money will help stop the spread of disease

People in the UK have donated £8m to the appeal to help survivors of the cyclone that has devastated Burma.

The Disasters Emergency Committee, the UK umbrella group representing 13 major charities, said the resulting aid would reach 600,000 people.

Aid agencies had been worried that tensions between the Burmese government and the outside world might put people off giving to the appeal.

DEC head Brendan Gormley said he was "delighted" by the generosity shown.

Cyclone Nargis struck the politically isolated south-east Asian country more than two weeks ago, killing at least 78,000 people and leaving tens of thousands more at risk of disease and starvation.

Desperate need

"I'm delighted that the British public have recognised what a difference their donations can make and are continuing to give," Mr Gormley said.

Whilst hundreds of thousands of people have been reached, there are many more who still desperately need our help Brendan Gormley Disasters Emergency Committee Burma: How you can help

He urged people to continue donating to ensure food, water and medical supplies reach thousands of vulnerable people in the affected areas.

"This money is saving lives right now in Burma, but with a disaster of this magnitude there is always much, much more that could be done," he said.

"Whilst hundreds of thousands of people have been reached, there are many more who still desperately need our help."

Aid 'moving'

Save the Children, which is part of the DEC, warned on Sunday that 30,000 acutely malnourished children under five years of age were threatened with starvation.

If they did not receive energy-rich food now they could die within weeks, the charity said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week condemned the Burmese regime's response to the disaster as "inhuman".

EXTENT OF THE DEVASTATION See map and satellite images

However, Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown said on Sunday the aid operation was finally "starting to move".

He said there were signs that Burma might accept a compromise brokered by Asian intermediaries to allow more foreign help, including allowing Western ships to deliver aid.

Several UK aid agencies have already been on the ground in Burma providing food, clean water and medical help.

Muslim Aid said it has helped more than 250 families since arriving a week ago, and is about to distribute 500 food parcels.

A team from Merlin, a medical emergency relief organisation, has delivered water purification, plastic sheeting, plastic bowls and soap to one of the country's islands.

It says that without safe water for drinking and keeping clean, acute diarrhoea can claim lives in a matter of days.

Boat and truck

Some 500 Save the Children charity staff, who were already working in the country when the cyclone struck, have been distributing aid by boat and truck.

They have reached 100,000 people in townships across Rangoon - nearly half of them children, to provide food, water purification tablets, shelter, plastic sheeting, blankets, kitchen equipment and rehydration salts.

The £8m raised through individual donations in Britain is in addition to the £17m in emergency aid already pledged for Burma by the UK government.

That money is being distributed both to aid agencies and the United Nation's World Food Programme.

To make a donation to the DEC Burma Cyclone Appeal call 0870 60 60 900 or visit www.dec.org.uk