In Myanmar, monsoon rains have produced floods and landslides that have killed five people and forced the evacuation of about 40,000 others, according to officials on Friday.
Rakhine state, which was decimated by Cyclone Mocha in May, was depicted in footage as having vast tracts of farms and villages inundated by murky, yellow-brown waters.
Every year around this time, huge rains hit Myanmar, but in recent weeks, catastrophic weather events have occurred all over the world, which scientists say are made worse by climate change.
Some people of Bago, which is northeast of Yangon, left early, while others were caught off guard by the quickly rising water.
Every year, there are floods in Bago, but this one is the worst. Soe Min Aung, a 23-year-old inhabitant of Bago, told AFP that the water is often only knee- or thigh-deep during the rainy season and that his family had hurriedly purchased a boat.
Others stayed since they didn’t think the water would be too high, while some families moved to a monastery. The water level in some areas is greater than twice my height.
On Friday night, more than 870 people were squished into a Bago monastery where they were being fed by monks and getting goods that had been donated.
Local administrator Khin Maung stated, “We set up places for them to stay.”
The family decided to stay upstairs because the ground level of Min Thaw’s two-story home was flooded with water, according to the 66-year-old.
He remarked, “I believe this is Bago’s first significant flood in seven or eight years.”
Evacuations
According to Lay Shwe Zin Oo, director of Myanmar’s social welfare, relief, and resettlement ministry, five people have died, and 40,000 or more people are anticipated to be evacuated nationwide by Friday.
She told AFP that “our department is providing necessary items for households evacuated to temporary camps.”
Since the beginning of August, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that strong monsoon rains, rising rivers, and creeks had affected almost 50,000 people in Myanmar.
The organization stated in a statement that “monsoon paddy crops have suffered major damage in Mon and Kayin (states),” adding that water levels in the Bago, Bilin, and Salween rivers were now dropping.
Nine of the nation’s states and regions, including Rakhine, Kachin, Karen, Mon, and Chin, have experienced flooding since it started in late July.
The country’s governing junta estimated that it might take a month to construct a temporary bridge after a landslide shut off a key route in Karen state that led to a town near the Thai border.
The junta, which took control of the country in a coup in February 2021, and civilian groups opposed to its rule are engaged in a brutal civil war in Myanmar.
A local watchdog group estimates that over 3,800 people have died since the coup; the junta places the death toll at 5,000.
The junta received harsh criticism from the United Nations for how it handled the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which at least claimed 148 lives and destroyed numerous homes.
State media criticized the UN body for its “arrogance, ignorance, and self-interest” when it denounced the authorities’ refusal to allow humanitarian workers access to the area.
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