New official figures for the first time give a sense of the scale of the destruction wrought by the powerful March 28 earthquake in central Myanmar.
The military regime on Wednesday said the quake destroyed or damaged 48,834 residential buildings and 5,275 pagodas and stupas in Naypyitaw, Mandalay, Sagaing, and Bago regions, and Shan State.
It also wrecked 3,094 monasteries and nunneries, 2,045 schools, 167 healthcare facilities, 2,171 departmental offices, 198 dams, and 148 bridges. The Yangon-Naypyitaw-Mandalay highway and railway were also heavily affected, with damage reported in 148 sections along the route.
But the official figures only represent damage in junta-controlled areas and leave out areas held by anti-regime groups.
“There’s a lot of damage in places which are not under their control,” a Sagaing resident said. “For instance, there are a lot of displaced people and earthquake victims south of Mingun, but the regime’s writ doesn’t run there, so the scale of damage is probably much higher than reported.”
The biggest destruction from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake was tallied at the epicenter in Sagaing Township and neighboring Wetlet and Shwebo as well as Madaya, Singu, and Thabbeikyin in Mandalay Region. Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay was also hit hard.
Communications and electricity are yet to be fully restored.
“I don’t believe their figures,” one resident of Mandalay’s Maha Aungmyay Township said. “In our neighborhood we haven’t received any assistance from the government. We have to do everything by ourselves, and to demolish damaged buildings, we have to seek approval from the municipal authorities, so all they’re giving us is pressure.”
Over 100 aftershocks measuring an average of 4 on the Richter Scale continued through Wednesday. The official death toll rose to 3,645 on Tuesday, with over 5,000 injured and 148 missing.
The civilian National Unity Government carried out its own tally, saying 4,603 infrastructure facilities, 32,368 houses, 5,324 religious buildings (including monasteries, mosques, pagodas, and religious halls), and 554 schools were wrecked.
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that the earthquake might have affected around 17 million people in nearly 60 townships.
