The devastating earthquake that hit Myanmar last month has displaced tens of thousands and left the conflict-hit country in urgent need of large-scale debris removal, the United Nations said Monday.
"At least two and half million tonnes of debris -- roughly 125,000 truckloads -- must be removed in Myanmar," the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a statement, pointing to new data generated by remote sensing data.
Two weeks on from the 7.7-magnitude quake, which killed more than 3,600, the central cities of Mandalay and Sagaing lie devastated, while more than 60,000 people have crowded into temporary displacement sites, the agency said.
They are "too fearful to return to their homes. Transport connectivity is impaired and water supply is not functioning", UNDP's resident representative in the country Titon Mitra warned in the statement.
According to the UNDP analysis, some 1.6 million buildings were. . .
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