By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) - UN agencies on Tuesday drew attention to the urgent needs in Myanmar after Friday's devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country, saying water, medicine, food, and shelter were in short supply.
The UN humanitarian office OCHA said at a UN press briefing in Geneva that "the critical windows for search is narrow now" as 72 hours have passed.
This means that the number of people affected and casualties are expected to rise, said OCHA's Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar Marcoluigi Corsi.
"Shelter, food, clean water, and essential household items are in short supply. Some people in the affected areas spent the night in the open ... because (there is) no electricity, no running water," Marcoluigi said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Myanmar said that the hospitals in the country are overwhelmed with patients and "the medical supplies are running dry."
Fernando Thushara added that there are shortages of running water and fuel.
UNICEF's Deputy Representative Julia Rees, for her part, said: "The needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour. The window for a life-saving response is closing. Across the affected areas, families are facing acute shortages of clean water, food, and medical supplies."
Noting that even before this earthquake, over 6.5 million children in Myanmar were in need of humanitarian assistance and one in three displaced people in the country is a child, Rees said: "Now, the earthquake has added another layer of crisis—pushing already vulnerable families past the brink."
She underlined that the situation is "dire" and "it's super hot" in the country, making "the most important need is water." She stressed that the water pipes and the septic tanks have broken.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said the situation in Myanmar is a "top-level humanitarian" crisis "as we have not seen a tragedy and devastation like this in Myanmar in recent years."
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said the agency is currently identifying critical needs in the worst-affected areas of Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing Regions.
"The most urgent requirement is to deploy shelter and relief items to the affected areas," Baloch said. "It is also essential to monitor risks around explosive ordnance, family separation, child protection and gender-based violence."
The UN agencies also drew attention to the importance of urgent funding, calling it "crucial to saving lives."
The death toll from the devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday has reached 2,719, the country’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Tuesday.
In addition, over 4,521 people have been injured, and more than 440 remain missing.
In response to the disaster, Myanmar had declared seven days of national mourning on Monday.
As time passes and hundreds of people remain unaccounted for, the number of fatalities is expected to rise.