Arakan military council spends K300 million on construction of retaining wall for seaside Pauktaw Twsp village

By Admin 11 Nov 2023

DMG Newsroom 11
November 2023, Pauktaw

The Arakan State military council will reportedly spend K300 million to build a retaining wall in Thae Khon Village on Anauk Phayonekar Island aka Myay Ngu Island in Pauktaw Township, where some homes were damaged by coastal erosion.

Construction of a retaining wall with a length of 550 feet and a width of 2 metres will be completed in March 2024, said Ko Phyo Wailin, assistant engineer of the retaining wall construction team.

“We are collecting the necessary construction materials and will start the construction work soon. The retaining wall will be built by layering the stones in with iron sheeting. We will build this retaining wall as best as we can,” he said.

When a port was built in Sittwe for the Kaladan multi-modal transit project, sand was mined from the mouth of the Kaladan River for the construction. The sand mining led to erosion at the opposite bank and houses were inundated, according to the Arakan Rivers Network.

The 550-ft-long retaining wall to be constructed will only cover half of the village’s perimeter, said U Thein Tun, the village administrator.

“It will be more effective to prevent the village from eroding if a longer retaining wall is built,” he said.

“We would like to express thanks to the Arakan State military council for construction of the retaining wall. But the retaining will not cover the entire village,” said Daw Khin Khin Thein, a local woman from Thae Khon Village. “It remains to be seen if we will experience sea erosion again when the rainy season arrives.”

The fishing village along the coast of the Bay of Bengal is home to around 2,000 people. Nearly 420 houses out of about 450 in the village were damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall over Arakan State on May 14.