UNITED NATIONS, May 10: The United Nations on Friday appealed to the international community for $187 million to help provide humanitarian relief to some 1.5 million people severely affected by the recent cyclone in Myanmar for the next six months.

Launching the Flash Appeal in New York on behalf of 10 UN agencies and 9 non-governmental organisations, the UN’s top relief official emphasised that “the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe is enormous.”

Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said that the number of those severely affected is between 1.2 and 1.9 million. But he added that “the number of people in need may well increase further as we come to understand better the situation on the ground.”

Cyclone Nargis, which struck the South-East Asian nation on May 2, left a path of death and destruction across the Irrawaddy delta region and the country’s largest city, Yangoon. The government estimates that more than 22,000 people have died and over 41,000 missing.

Mr Holmes noted that the number of deaths had been climbing daily and “could be anywhere between 63,000 and 100,000, or possibly even higher.”

Stressing the need to act quickly and for the government to facilitate aid delivery, he said that “the sooner humanitarians are allowed in, and the less procedural and other obstacles we encounter, the more lives we can help save.”

He later told reporters that countries at the launch voiced strong hope that the cooperation which was necessary between the international community and the authorities in Myanmar would be “as forthcoming, as flexible, and as rapid as possible to make sure that not only material relief goods could get in but also humanitarian aid workers.”

The Appeal covers 12 areas, with the largest portion of the funding sought for food, water and sanitation, logistics, health and shelter. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking $56 million to provide daily food rations to 630,000 people in severely-affected areas or temporary shelters.

Also, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has appealed for $10 million to assist poor farming and fishing communities devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which made landfall in the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) delta region last Friday and then moved on to Myanmar’s largest city, Yangoon.

FAO said the five worst-affected areas — Ayeyarwady, Yangoon and Bago Divisions, and Mon and Kayin states — are considered Myanmar’s food bowl, producing much of the country’s staple food of rice and fish, and the overall food security situation in Myanmar is “seriously threatened.”

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said that tens of thousands of pregnant women made homeless by the cyclone urgently need lifesaving assistance.