Military helicopters dropped food and water on Wednesday to the cyclone-stricken people of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta, where entire villages have been washed away and one million people left homeless, officials said.

Nearly 22,500 people were killed and 41,000 are still missing after cyclone Nargis ripped through the delta, Asia’s most devastating cyclone since 1991 when a storm killed 143,000 in neighbouring Bangladesh.

“We estimate upwards of one million people currently in need of shelter and life-saving assistance,” Richard Horsey of the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Bangkok after an emergency aid meeting.

“There are large swathes of the lower Irrawaddy delta completely under water. We are talking 5,000 square km under water. It’s a vast area,” he said.

The military Junta’s aid operation has moved up a gear with some helicopter drops into the region, but land convoys were nowhere to be seen, a witness in the malaria-infested swamplands of the delta said.

Aid experts say Myanmar’s ruling generals must overcome their distrust of the outside world and open their doors to a full-scale international relief operation if more victims are not to die of thirst, hunger and disease.

“With all those dead mostly floating in the water at this point you can get some idea of the conditions facing the teams on the ground. It’s a major logistical challenge,” Horsey said.

“The top priorities are water purification tablets, plastic sheeting, basic medical kits, bed nets and emergency food.”

Most of the victims were swept away by a wall of water from the weekend cyclone that smashed into coastal towns and villages.

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