Shortage of drinking water and lack of toilets trouble Kyauktaw Twsp IDP camp

02 Feb 2023

DMG Newsroom
2 February 2023, Kyauktaw

About 2,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering at the Thayet Oak displacement camp in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, are facing a shortage of drinking water as well as toilet difficulties.

A relatively new displacement camp, Thayet Oak was built in November 2022 with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on grazing land near Thayet Oak Village. It was established due to the increasing number of IDPs taking refuge in Kyauktaw town amid renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army in the area.

Around 370 households from multiple villages in both Kyauktaw Township and Chin State’s Paletwa Township are currently sheltering at the Thayet Oak displacement camp.

U Tun Khin, manager of the IDP camp, said the water in the ponds being used by the IDP camp has dried up, and IDPs are drawing water from dwindling sources that they worry will become even more difficult to access in the summer months.

“Previously, the area was grazing land, so there were only small ponds. When the IDPs came to use the water, we faced a water shortage,” U Tun Khin said. “There is a lake about four furlongs from the village and we use water from that lake. As the water in the lake is low, some people fetch water from a stream.”

Some IDP children and adults are suffering from diarrheal diseases, as well as other illnesses, due to the impurity of drinking water. In addition to drinking water difficulties, the IDPs say there are no toilets in the IDP camp.

“It is very difficult for us because there is no toilet in the displacement camp. As a woman, there are safety concerns because there are no toilets,” said Daw Soe Myint Khaing, an IDP woman from Nagayar Village.

Since makeshift tents are still to be built in the IDP camp, inhabitants are in need of wood as well as other building materials.