Aid is desperately needed in hard-to-reach parts of Myanmar devastated by the recent cyclone, which triggered huge waves that in some areas swept away more than 90 percent of dwellings and left as many as 90 percent of residents dead or missing, a UNICEF official said Sunday. Osamu Kunii, chief of health and nutrition at UNICEF's office in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, described the dire situation faced by Cyclone Nargis survivors in the Ayeyarwady delta region of southwestern Myanmar in a telephone interview. "People are drinking contaminated water and diarrhea is becoming rife," Kunii said. "Bodies are floating around in the water and can't be recovered. We fear outbreaks of communicable and water-borne diseases." UNICEF estimates that 20 percent of the children in the hardest-hit areas already have diarrhea and says cases of malaria are also being reported. Dengue fever is another concern. The U.N. agency has so far distributed 15,000 hygiene kits and plans to distribute another 20,000, as well as to construct large numbers of portable toilets in camps set up to house people who have lost their homes. Lacking other sources of food, some cyclone victims are subsisting on unripe mangoes, Kunii said. He said the most pressing need right now is clean drinking water. "Items like water purification tablets, essential drugs and shelter materials for those whose homes were washed away are required," he said. With many roads blocked by debris and fallen trees, UNICEF says distributing purification tablets is quicker and more practical than attempting to distribute large quantities of potable water. But while it is important to rush out relief supplies to those in need, boats needed to deliver them in the delta area have mostly been washed away, he lamented. Emergency supplies that were prepositioned in the country are now being distributed, but they are insufficient to meet critical needs, Kunii said.