Taungup Township villages again grapple with flooding

By DMG 06 Aug 2021

DMG Newsroom
6 August 2021, Taungup

About 10 villages in Arakan State’s Taungup Township are facing flooding due to incessant rains and downpours, according to locals.

The water levels in some Taungup Township villages have risen by as much as 12 feet due to continuous rains since 3 a.m. on August 6, said U Wai Thaung, a village elder from Sar Pyin village.

“Due to heavy rains, the mountain streams continue to flow into the village. Some houses in the village were submerged because the tide was high from the beginning. We don’t even have time to ask each other for information. The rain has not stopped yet and the creek is still flowing,” he said.

There are neither relief teams nor boats in the flood-hit villages, making it difficult for the elderly and children to evacuate.

Livestock such as cattle and pigs had to be brought to higher ground due to the rising waters, Taungpauk village administrator U Lu Chay told DMG.

“There is no relief team in the village. If the floods get worse, the lives of the villagers will be in danger. It can be even more difficult for daily wage workers,” he said.

Taungup Township is located in a low-lying area, which floods to varying degrees every year during the rainy season.

More than 700 households and 3,000 people were affected by floods in Thandwe Township on July 27.

Some villages in northern Maungdaw Township were also flooded due to heavy rains at the end of July, and inter-village bridges were damaged, making it difficult for residents to travel and earn a living in the area.

The floods have brought added hardship to many people already struggling to make ends meet amid the Covid-19 pandemic’s third wave in Myanmar.