Thousands of acres of rice fields have been destroyed by flooding since the beginning of October and thousands of more acres remain submerged as the post-monsoon harvest is about to begin in Kayah and southern Shan states, as well as Bago Region.
In one township of Bago Region–Kyaukkyi–more than 7,000 acres of rice fields remain inundated and another 2,000 acres were destroyed just weeks before harvest, residents say.
Nearly 5,000 people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance as houses, roads and farms in 18 villages of the township remain submerged by flooding, the Karen National Union (KNU), which controls the area, said on Tuesday.
International aid groups, however, have no access to the township as the junta directs their aid to benefit areas under its control.
The KNU said on October 13 that about 1,000 people from nine villages in Bago Region’s Mone Township were hit by severe flooding caused by unrelenting downpours. The area is controlled by Karen National Liberation Army’s Brigade 3, an armed wing of the KNU.
Prolonged flooding continues to wreak havoc in Kayah and southern Shan states, destroying large swathes of rice fields just before harvest, local residents and resistance forces told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
Around 1,000 acres of rice fields in southern Shan State’s Moebye Township have been inundated by flooding, a village resident who fled to Moebye Town said.
A farmer from the township said rice fields had been flooded for more than a week, adding: “If flooding continues, we will lose our paddy fields … it will also be difficult to find labor for harvesting even if the flood recedes because so many people have fled to other areas for safety.”
Flooding has turned about 1,000 villagers into internally displaced people (IDPs) in Moebye Township, members of the Moebye People’s Defense Force (PDF) and volunteers said.
“Most IDPs fled to Moebye Town … We don’t want them to move there because the town is not safe due to the presence of junta infantry battalions and frequent shelling over residential areas,” a representative of Moebye PDF said. About 500 IDPs who returned to Moebye are taking shelter in three of the town’s wards, sources said.
Farmland in Kayah State’s Demoso and Loikaw townships has also been flooded, residents and volunteers reported. Unrelenting rainfall and a massive discharge of water from Moebye Dam are the two causes of recent flooding in Kayah and southern Shan State, aid groups in both states say.
Since the beginning of October, heavy rainfall triggered by a tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal, caused widespread flooding in Bago, Mandalay and Yangon regions, displacing thousands of residents, destroying crops and disrupting transport.
