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MYANMAR-FLOOD
Myanmar dam overflow floods 100 villages
BAGO, Myanmar, Aug 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Monsoon rains caused a central
Myanmar dam to overflow early Wednesday, inundating about 100 villages and
blocking the country’s biggest highway, a government official said.
No casualties have been reported but thousands were displaced and took
shelter in temporary camps.
Swar Chaung dam’s spillway structure, which regulates the release of water
from the levee, broke due to heavy seasonal rainfall in Bago region,
authorities said.
The water gushed into the rural flatland region as people fled their homes
on foot, clutching bags of belongings, according to footage of the aftermath.
The weight of the floodwater also fractured part of a bridge on the
Yangon-Mandalay highway, which serves as an important artery between
Myanmar’s two biggest cities.
“We don’t have exact data about the number of victims but the water has
hit villages where more than 50,000 people live,” Ministry of Social Welfare
director Phyu Lae Lae Tun told AFP.
She added that a total of 12,000 households in some 100 villages are
affected by the floods.
Army chief Min Aung Hlaing, under mounting international pressure to face
international justice following a damning UN report this week on the Rohingya
crisis, was quick to arrive at the scene.
“We have to work together,” he told local media. “The spillway cannot be
controlled currently and the water will not stop.”
AFP journalists saw convoys of military trucks carrying boats headed to
the scene.
Camps for the displaced were being set up while other people were taking
refuge in monasteries, Phyu lae Lae Tun said.
“But we don’t have the details of how many people are displaced or how
many people are still living in their respective villages,” she added.
The torrent comes just weeks after heavy monsoon rains pummelled Myanmar,
causing widespread flash floods that forced some 150,000 people to flee their
homes.
Southeast Asia is often battered by weather during the annual monsoon
season, which runs from around June to November.
Regional neighbour Laos was hit badly last month when heavy rainfall
caused the collapse of a massive dam, an unprecedented disaster that left at
least 35 dead and scores missing.
The Communist country is now facing intense scrutiny on its hydropower
strategy as it plans to become the “battery of Asia” by damming rivers and
selling its electricity to its neighbours.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1639 hrs