Floods hit 2000 people

Photo A bus sits stranded in floodwater on a road near Kyauktaw township in Rakhine State on July 15. Photo: EPA

07 Aug 19 - Source: Myanmar Times - More than 2000 people have been displaced and some schools have been temporarily closed due to flooding, according to Myanmar's Department of Disaster Management.

Kayin, Mon, Rakhine, Thaninthari, Bago and Ayeyarwady have been especially affected by this year's flooding, officials from the department said.

"About 26,400 people have been affected by flooding as of August 5 and 6. We are providing food and other emergency supplies and tallying the number of people hit by flooding," an official from the department said.

It has been raining heavily nationwide over the past several days and river levels have risen, flooding several parts of the country.

According to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, a low-pressure area over the northern part of the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a depression.

Weather reports say winds at the centre of the depression are reported to be around 72 kilometres per hour.

The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology says while the weather system is not moving towards Myanmar, it would still bring rain to parts of the country.

According to the department, the depression, currently categorised as code yellow, could intensify into a deep depression over the next 24 hours.

Rain or thunderstorms will be widespread in Nay Pyi Taw, Sagaing, Mandalay, Magwe, Bago, Yangon, Ayeyarwady, Tanintharyi, Chin, Rakhine, Kayin, and Mon with isolated heavy rain and strong winds.

In Kayin, Hlaingbwe, Hpa-an, Kawkareik, Kya-in Seikkyi and Myawady townships have been hit by floods and some 3500 people are taking shelter in seven evacuation centres, according to Department of Disaster Management.

In Ayeyarwady, 14 schools were closed temporarily by floods in the townships of Danuphyu, Ingapu, Kangyidaunt, Maubin, Pathein and Zalun. but two have already reopened in Danuphyu and Ingapu, the regional Department of Basic Education said.

Since the start of this year's monsoon, an estimated 100,000 people in nine states and regions have been affected by flooding.

July and August see the heaviest for rainfall in Myanmar every year, and heavy rains are expected to continue across the region, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

Frequent squalls with rough to very rough seas will be experienced along Myanmar's coasts, with surface wind speeds of up to 73 kilometres per hour and waves up to four metres high.

Due to the depression, strong winds with heavy rain are expected, and people should beware of flooding and landslides near hilly areas.


Myanmar Water Journal - August 2019
ဇင္းမယ္ ၏ ေရဆိုးျပဳ ျပင္ေရး တစ္ေစ႕တစ္ေစါင္း
 

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