Locals call for completion of long-delayed rural hospital in Kyauktaw Twsp

By Admin 28 Aug 2023

DMG Newsroom
28 August 2023, Kyauktaw

As construction of a rural healthcare centre that broke ground in 2017 in Kansauk Village, part of Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, is not yet finished, locals are asking that the project managers hasten its completion.

The centre under construction will be a healthcare facility that people from more than 40 villages along the upper reaches of the Yoe Chaung (Creek), including Kansauk Village, will rely on for healthcare services.

“Thousands of local people from 47 villages along the upper reaches of the Yoe Creek will rely on this hospital,” said U Thinkhar Kyaw, the administrator of Kansauk Village. “If the locals become ill, they have difficulties in health matters. Locals in the Kansauk area are grassroots, so if construction of this hospital is completed, it will enable them to receive proper medical treatment. Locals want the construction of the hospital to be completed as soon as possible.”

The cottage hospital was scheduled to be completed in 2019, with K581 million allocated by the Department of Public Health in the fiscal year 2017-2018, and was partially built by Maha Arr Mahn Construction Co at a cost of K200 million. The construction company subsequently returned the allotted budget money due to problems between the company and the local government.

Arrakhadana Construction Co picked up the project in the fiscal year 2021-2022, but construction was suspended due to difficulties obtaining a budget, village officials said.

As construction of the hospital has not yet been completed, doctors and hospital staff have not yet arrived, and residents are struggling to access healthcare services.

There are few rural healthcare centres and health workers in villages along the upper reaches of the Yoe Creek.

“More than a week ago, a child under 10 died in our village, not chronically. A child died before reaching the hospital in Hsinmakyaw Village yesterday. This is a result of the lack of doctors at the hospital,” said Ko Soe Min Tun, a local social activist.

“When the patient was brought to the Apaukwa rural healthcare centre, the patient’s condition changed within hours and the patient died. I believe that if only one doctor were assigned to the Kansauk cottage hospital, the lives of patients could be saved,” he added.

People in villages along the upper reaches of the Yoe Creek rely mainly on waterways to travel. Communication is difficult, and healthcare and education are among the sectors that are lagging behind in development compared with other parts of Arakan State.

“People in villages along the upper reaches of the Yoe Creek rely on Kansauk Village for health matters,”  said Ma Lone Lone, a local woman from Kansauk Village. “It takes about three hours by boat from their villages to Kansauk Village. They [locals] have many difficulties in going to Kyauktaw because they have to pass the military’s security checkpoints. If the construction of this rural hospital is completed, the difficulties of the locals will be reduced.”

The incomplete cottage hospital building was also damaged by Cyclone Mocha in mid-May.

DMG phoned Dr. Zaw Zaw Aung, assistant director of the Arakan State Department of Public Health, regarding the stalled construction of the Kansauk cottage hospital, but he could not be reached.