Relief delivery from government and CSOs for flood victims is insufficient

16 Jul 2019

Min Tun | DMG

16 July, Sittwe

The flooding that hit three townships in Arakan State since 10 July has affected over 100,000 people, the government could have evacuated just more than 9600 flood victims up to 16 July.

Houses and paddy fields were submerged in Kyautaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya Townships during the four-day flooding. Civilians also lost their cattle. However, the exact amount of devastation cannot be confirmed so far.

Moreover, members of parliament in the affected areas said that the government and CSOs are still sluggish in providing relief aid for flood victims who have been encountering food and living challenges.

U Ye Min Oo, Staff Officer of the Department of Disaster Management in Arakan State, told the DMG that the department has been furnishing relief supplies for flood victims as much as it could, but it’s not up to a sufficient level of support.

“We have known that the flood victims would face food and accommodation trouble currently. As of now we can only partially provide necessary items for them,” he said.

CSOs are delaying the delivery of provisions for flood victims because they could not get required information urgently since lack Internet access, according to sources from CSOs.

“If we need to provide relief aid for a region, we need to know the number of affect persons and their needs. We have to collect information and that takes time. So, we have to delay getting relief aid to them,” said U Thein Win, director of Wan Lark Foundation.

Currently, the flood water has subsided in the three townships but some houses were destroyed during the flooding. Moreover, village wells and ponds were inundated with rainwater and people face difficulty to getting good drinking water while farmers have lost their paddy fields from the flooding.