Flood resilience in Myanmar’s Dry Zone
9 July 19 - Source: CordAid - In central Myanmar, many villages and their inhabitants are in danger. Climate change is causing both excessive rainfall and prolonged drought, and the Irrawaddy River, Myanmar's lifeline, is increasingly bursting its banks. With disastrous consequences.
The villagers are seated in a large circle around large sheets full of scribbles and post-it notes. Women in colorful robes raise their hands and call out their concerns, while the men nod in agreement, and Cordaid's resilience workers eagerly write the statements down.
"Before, this village owned 350 acres. Now they own only 50. They have lost their land."
Cyril Myint Soe, director of Caritas Myanmar
A love-hate relationship
Everyone in this room has already fallen victim to the merciless expansion of the Irrawaddy River. It is the ultimate love-hate relationship. The villagers depend on the river, for fishing, for their hygiene and to water their farmlands.
But as soon as the river decides to swallow hundreds of acres of farmland and entire villages after heavy rainfall, this intimate relationship turns into enmity, and the villagers invariably lose out.
300 acres of land lost"The erosion happens faster and more," says Cyril Myint Soe, director of Caritas Myanmar, the local implementing organization for Cordaid's flood resilience program. "Before, this village owned 350 acres. Now they own only 50. They have lost their land."
That land is now permanently underwater, farmers have lost their crops and therefore their income, and many villagers have lost their homes as well as virtually all of their possessions.
Anyone who has been fortunate enough to be able to rebuild their house, at a safe distance from the river, now might again risk the loss of their home. Moving even farther away from the banks is not a feasible option for most, as the river remains the most important source of income for the community.
Watch this video, in which Cordaid CEO Kees Zevenbergen visits the resilience program in central Myanmar (English):
Development and contingency plans
Together with the staff of Caritas Myanmar, Cordaid is helping thirteen villages along the banks of the Irawaddy by mapping the risks and drawing up contingency plans.
During the meetings, the villagers express their greatest concerns and needs, after which Cordaid helps the community to resolve their problems. This is called Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction: the community receives support to come up with their own solutions to reduce the consequences of a potential disaster as much as possible.
Myint Soe: "For example, they are thinking about planting trees to reduce erosion. Another solution could be: placing empty petrol barrels in the river. That way you can change the course of the river."
Take a look at this photo report out of flood-prone Pakkoku:
Reducing disaster risks in the flood-prone Dry Zone of Myanmar | Flickr
Clean water in the slums of Yangon
In the capital city of Yangon people are also fighting a fierce battle against the rising water. Many inhabitants still remember the devastation of cyclone Nargis in 2008. The
Similarly to the approach in Pakkoku, Cordaid has drawn up a contingency plan with the population to prevent new disasters in the future. Ironically, one of the biggest problems during the periods of flooding appeared to be a lack of water.
Clean drinking water, that is. The polluted water flowing through the slums causes dangerous diseases to spread rapidly, often with fatal consequences.
After the population had identified these problems, Cordaid started constructing a water supply for 10,000 residents.