Floods in Myanmar back in 2014. Source: mohigan, Wikimedia Commons
Monsoon rains have caused floods and landslides in Myanmar, killing at least five people, including children, and displacing some 48,000 people.
In Bago city, north-east of Myanmar, people sheltered in a monastery as they waited for water levels to recede.
52-year-old Tin Win, one of those displaced, said that although the conditions at the shelter were cramped and food was rationed to two meals a day, she was thankful to be dry and safe.
“The space is tiny and there is not much space to sleep. We have to lie down next to each other,” she told AFP.
“If there is no more rain, we hope to go back home in three days.”
According to the Myanmar weather bureau, the Bago River rose about 30cm higher on Saturday, but was expected to slowly go down over the next few days.
While Myanmar experiences monsoon rains every year, scientists believe that climate change has worsened weather events this year.
Lay Shwe Zin Oo, the director of Myanmar’s social welfare, relief, and resettlement ministry, said that, as of Saturday, five people have died and an estimated 48,000 have been evacuated from their homes across the Kachin, Karen, Chin, Rakhine, and Mon states and the Magway and Bago regions.
Lay Shwe Zin Oo told AP that those who have died include three children in the state of Mon, and a mother and child in Rakhine who drowned.
“We have provided necessary food including instant noodles and drinking water,” she told AFP.
“People are staying at monasteries, schools and other higher places.”
Low-lying areas around southern Bago, the state of Rakhine, and central Magway have been inundated with water since Sunday.
A landslide on Monday destroyed a 61-metre-long section of important mountain highway linking the townships of Kawkareik and Myawaddy in easter Kayin state, cutting off a busy trade route. However, there were no reports of casualties.
