Border communities struggle as monsoon floodwaters rise and recede

August 5, 2013

WCRP: As a week of heavy downpours and severe flooding that displaced thousands of people in southeastern Burma concludes, a number of news outlets continue to cover the scale of the crisis and the related humanitarian responses. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 33,409 people in Karen State have been displaced due to flooding, while Agence France-Presse reported on August 2 that 4,700 people in neighboring Mon State were temporarily without homes. But much of the media coverage and relief assistance has not penetrated the smaller, remote, and more inaccessible border communities also inundated by rain, and only now are reports from these less publicized areas beginning to seep out.

Chaung Zone village, located near the bustling border town of Three Pagodas Pass, is an example of just such an underreported area. Approximately 90 out of the village’s 100 households have allegedly flooded since torrential rains began on July 30, the same day that residents said two children and their mother succumbed to swiftly rising water in their home. Villagers claimed that the water level reached the roofs of some houses and that several people were forced to seek shelter in a local school. Shop owners reported losing perishable items like rice, salt, and sugar to the inundation, further damaging local livelihoods and placing additional strain on already limited resources.

“There are 90 households in Chaung Zone village, 15 in Phaung Sait, and 36 in Thabarwa village that flooded,” said an assistant to the village headman in Chaung Zone. “The water rose at night and people had a hard time running away. Some people live on the other side of the [Zami] river and could not get back to their families [after work]. We’ve never seen the water come up like this before.”

A woman from Phaung Sait village said, “Water comes suddenly and people can’t move their things fast enough. I have two children, one is in grade 11 and studies in Kyainnseikyi in Karen state. The youngest one is in grade 6 in Chaung Zone. [The rain] made it really hard [for them] to travel between the village and school. Now the school is closed and they don’t have to go, but even when it opens I won’t allow them to go because it is too dangerous.”

Although the heavy rains have abated for the time being in Mon State, residents that fled their homes expressed hesitancy to return in case of renewed flooding. Those that remained in their villages eagerly await assistance that will provide much needed food supplies, temporary shelter, and clothing. Members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, the National League for Democracy, and local community-based organizations in Three Pagodas Pass have reportedly collected and distributed donations of clothes, rice, and dry goods, but residents said the help has come slowly and many people continue to struggle to meet their most basic needs.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News