Cyclone-affected IDPs in Kyauktaw camps build makeshift tents on self-reliant basis

By Admin 16 Oct 2023

DMG Newsroom
16 October 2023, Kyauktaw
 
Internally displaced people (IDPs) in downtown Kyauktaw’s displacement camps whose shelters were destroyed by Cyclone Mocha are building makeshift tents on a self-reliant basis, according to IDP camp officials.
 
Forty-four shelters at an IDP camp near the township football pitch were destroyed by the storm. As IDPs have not received support from the junta or charities, they are building makeshift tents on their own.
 
“We don’t receive any financial assistance from the junta, so we borrowed money from others to build makeshift tents,” said U San Shwe Thaung, manager of the displacement camp.

 
IDPs received a small amount of rice and some clothes from the junta following the storm, according to IDP camp officials, but nothing since.
 
A list of shelters at the displacement camp damaged by the storm has been submitted to the military regime, but so far that has not prompted any restorative action, said IDPs.
 
A nongovernmental organisation has provided IDP families at the displacement camp with two tarpaulin sheets each.
 
Similarly, 60 shelters at the Kaviyadanar displacement camp are being repaired on a self-reliant basis as IDPs have not received support from the junta.

A nongovernmental organisation supplied IDPs with corrugated iron sheets, timber and bamboo, and some construction materials have been purchased with money borrowed from others in order to assemble makeshift tents, said IDPs.
 
“We are building makeshift tents on a self-reliant basis, but we still need bamboo. We must borrow about K30,000 from others to buy bamboo,” said Daw Ma Hla Thein, an IDP woman from the Kaviyadanar displacement camp.
 
Some IDPs are unable to build temporary shelters due to financial difficulties, and some have had to stop building as funds have run out.
 
“One-hundred bamboo sells for K44,000. Our homes are in the process of being built. We still need 100 more bamboo,” said U Oo Shwe Thein, an IDP man from the Kaviyadanar  displacement camp.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Kyauktaw Township Administrator U Kyaw Swar and Arakan State military council spokesman U Hla Thein regarding the matter.
 
Some five months after Cyclone Mocha made landfall over Arakan State on May 14, storm victims continue to face numerous challenges to recovery, including lack of food supplies, shoddy or nonexistent housing, and lost livelihoods.