Disasters and emergency response
Floods persist in Ayeyarwady Delta
While monsoon season flooding has ravaged most of Myanmar, in Ayeyarwady’s Tharpaung township the water has yet to subside below the danger level, meaning access has been severely restricted. Besieged villagers have scrambled onto anything dry, cresting roofs, higher ground, or in some cases, inside half-submerged ...
Flood-hit communities slated for relocation
Residents of 17 villages in Kalay, Kalaywa and Tamu townships plan to relocate their communities to safer sites to avoid future disasters, a Sagaing Region official said on 20 August. U Soe Soe Zaw said 13 villages in Kalay, two in Kalaywa and two in Tamu ...
Flood coordination drastically improved, but not without flaws
According to the National Natural Disaster Management Committee, the ongoing flood crisis has critically affected more than 1.6 million people, displaced over 333,000 households and killed at least 110 people. The massive relief effort is still under way, with the current outpouring of humanitarian aid more ...
As water recedes, mud poses new problems
Even as floodwaters recede, landslide-plagued Chin State and some villages in Sagaing Region remain inaccessible behind a thick wall of mud. For more than a month, transportation to the hard-hit and impoverished areas has been almost impossible. Flash floods wiped out roads and then deposited deep ...
After delta deluge, an escape to higher ground
Residents of the Irrawaddy Delta continue to reel from widespread, severe flooding that the region has suffered since mid-July, with thousands forced to abandon their inundated homes in search of higher ground. Keep reading ...
Floods damage Vientiane rice crop
Farmers in two districts of Vientiane are unable to replant their rice after seedlings in thousands of low-lying plots recently disappeared under floodwater. Parts of Sangthong and Naxaithong districts were inundated following torrential rain earlier this month and farmers are dismayed because they say it is ...
Flooded religious sites to be restored
Flood-hit religious sites and monuments will soon be mucked out and repaired following a damage assessment, religious affairs officials said. A tally of losses, displaced monks and swamped pagodas was started on 11 August by a 16-member committee under the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Keep reading ...
Seeds scarce as replanting begins
Disaster zones in Rakhine State urgently need paddy seeds, said a civil society organisation based in the state. U Thein Win, a member of the Wunlark Rural Development Foundation in Sittwe, said local farmers had to cultivate more paddy this month. Keep reading ...
Myanmar halts rice exports as floods hit crop
Myanmar halted rice shipments after floods over the past month inundated farmland, raising the specter of supply disruptions in the sixth-biggest exporter. The Myanmar Rice Federation voluntarily suspended exports to prevent an increase in prices after more than 200,000 acres (about 81,000 hectares) of paddy fields ...
China explosion: Tianjin death toll rises in port blasts
At least 44 people are now known to have died, and more than 500 injured, following two major explosions in China’s northern port city of Tianjin. Twelve firefighters were among the dead, China’s official Xinhua news agency said as it reported a doubling of the death ...
