Disasters and emergency response

Over 1000 people have been left homeless after fires this weekend blazed through Namhsan in northern Shan State and Labutta in Ayeyarwady Region. In Namhsan on 4 February, a fire that began roasting tea leaves caught kindling next to the stove, then lit a wood wall ...

Just six months after record-setting floods wreaked havoc on crops, farmers are being told to get ready to withstand severe drought. Meteorologists predict it’s likely to be one for the decades.  The El Niño event that hit Myanmar last year – and caused conditions among the ...

Thai military officers have warned farmers to stop pumping water from Klong Makham Thao, or they will have their water pumps seized. The officers, who were sent to inspect water drainage in Klong Makham Thao running through Chai Nat province, urged farmers to cooperate with authorities ...

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has blamed past policies that heavily promoted cash crops as a root cause of floods and drought. Commenting in the latest government’s newsletter, Gen Prayut said growing cash crops without controls leads to the destruction of forests and watershed areas, and even affects ...

Thailand’s Primary Industries and Mines Department is preparing 36 disused mines for water storage to help address the drought crisis. If the mines can be used as planned, their combined capacity will be 166 million cubic metres, said director-general Chat Hongtiamchant. He said his department found 36 ...

Deadly landslips have brought more death to Kachin State as two separate collapses in one day at the Hpakant jade mines claimed an unknown number of victims. Local residents fear as many as 30 people may have lost their lives. The first of the two landslides ...

Severe El Niño-linked drought has destroyed crops, killed farm animals and dried up water sources across East Asia and the Pacific, aid workers said, and UNICEF appealed for $62 million to assist children impacted by various crises in the region.   Humanitarian agencies are monitoring and responding ...

The Thai government’s planned diversion of billions of cubic metres of water from the Mekong River, described last week by a Thai Ministry of Water Resources representative as being as far as two years away, has already begun. The pumping, which is pulling water from the ...

As a country lodged on some of the most seismically active faults during what scientists suggest may be a particularly active period, Myanmar is boosting its ability to predict earthquakes. New digital seismographs will be set up in five cities across the country by the end ...

Many northern provinces have been experiencing bitter cold, while snow has been falling heavily in many areas across the northern mountainous region due to a strong cold spell that has enveloped almost half of the country since 23 January. Snow blanketed Sa Pa in the northern ...