WFP launches emergency food aid initiative for Myanmar flood victims

By Admin 08 Aug 2024

DMG Newsroom
8 August 2024, Sittwe

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an emergency relief response to assist more than a hundred thousand people affected by ongoing floods in five states and regions in Myanmar, the UN food agency said in a statement on August 7.

“WFP teams are now on the ground delivering lifesaving assistance to at least 120,000 flood-affected people in Bago, Kachin, Kayin, Magway and Sagaing,” the statement said, with Arakan State a notable absence. “WFP support includes cash, rice, special nutritious foods and fortified biscuits.”

“This flood comes at a time when food insecurity in Myanmar is at an emergency level,” said the WFP Myanmar representative, Paolo Mattei. “With more than 13 million people across the country grappling with food insecurity, the floods only exacerbate their vulnerability.”

Driven by intense monsoon rains since late June, severe flooding has impacted more than 200,000 people in Myanmar, with many temporarily displaced, the statement said.

Satellite data from WFP Advanced Disaster Analysis & Mapping estimates that around 855,000 people are living in areas exposed to flooding as of August 6, the statement added.

Thousands of acres of paddy in Kachin, Kayin and Arakan states and Yangon, Ayeyarwady, Sagaing, Magway, Tanintharyi and Bago regions were destroyed and casualties have been reported in recent weeks due to heavy rains and high tides. Thousands of acres of farmland in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya townships were inundated by floodwaters last week and flood victims are in need of food, medicine and drinking water, according to local farmers.

“Despite all the difficulties, we planted paddy and now it has been destroyed. The stored paddy is also destroyed, so it is not easy to replant it. I had to buy seed and fertiliser amid difficulties. If we can’t replant paddy, there is a challenge for next year’s food sufficiency,” said a local farmer in Kyauktaw Township.

As flooding continues in different parts of the country, WFP continues to monitor the situation and prepares to further expand its flood response as needed, its statement said.

Millions of people across the country have been uprooted by conflict since the 2021 military coup, with this season’s floods exacerbating already difficult living circumstances for many.