An old man sits in a small hut of tarpaulin and rags on the Ayeyarwady riverbank. With no shade trees around, the six-foot-square makeshift dwelling offers little protection against the scorching April heatwave.
Crouching in distress, the man in his 70s wears nothing more than a loincloth in extreme heat that has reached above 40 degrees Celsius (104F). The low tarpaulin roof of the hut touches his head as he sits on the hot, bare ground without a mat.
The hut is among nearly 150 makeshift dwellings sheltering villagers displaced by junta raids and arson attacks on civilians in Wetlet Township, Sagaing Region, a resistance stronghold.
The IDPs here are from Shein Makar village, which has been targeted by junta troops over the past 12 months. A large village of 15,00 houses in eastern Wetlet Township, Shein Makar was a tourism hotspot for its grand wooden houses and ancient monasteries before the coup in 2021. But the village has been deserted for the past five months, with most of the houses burnt down during junta raids. The residents have sought shelter in nearby IDP camps, monasteries and forests. Now adding to their distress is a record-breaking heatwave taking a toll on health and livelihoods.
“I have never experienced such heat, because we lived in houses before. Now, we are suffering higher temperatures living on the riverbank in small tarpaulin huts with no shade,” said U Nay Aung, a Shein Makar resident at the camp.
The 43-year-old fisherman lives with his four children in a small makeshift hut not far from the old man’s dwelling. Around 150 families live in the camp.
Central regions like Sagaing are no strangers to the intense summer heat of Myanmar’s arid heartland. But this year is different.
In April, several cities in central Myanmar featured on the list of the world’s 15 hottest places compiled by El Dorado Weather. Sagaing town ranked sixth on April 28, with a temperature of 45.5C.
The average daily temperature in the Sagaing Region towns of Salingyi, Wetlet, Shwebo, Ye-U and Depayin soared above 42C last week.
IDPs suffered heatstroke symptoms including dizziness, weakness and illness while at least two died from the heat, according to volunteers and camp residents.
U Nay Aung said two women in their 80s died last week at the camp. He said they lost consciousness due to heatstroke and died without receiving medical treatment.
“One was buried today,” he told the Irrawaddy on Saturday.
Displaced suffer more in heatwave
Almost 1.2 million people in Sagaing Region have been displaced by fighting and junta military operations including airstrikes, arson and ambush attacks, according to a report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in April.
These include over 20,000 civilians from Wetlet Township who have been displaced by junta attacks, according to the Shwebo Township support group, a charity organization supporting IDPs in Sagaing and Mandalay.
In Sagaing’s Salingyi Township, over 3,000 civilians have been displaced, according to its People’s Administration.
Among them is Daw Hla Hla Yi, who has sheltered at an IDP camp in a school since late June after junta troops torched her village of Nyaung Pin Gyi in Salingyi.
The 52-year-old woman sells vegetables and is the mother of four children. She said older people and kids in the camp had been worst affected by the heatwave.
“It is hotter now because we can’t live in our houses,” Daw Hla Hla Yi told The Irrawaddy.
She said people in her camp spent most of the day in the shade of trees in the compound, cooling themselves with bamboo fans. The IDPs could not buy soft drinks and rehydration salts because they could not even afford daily meals, she added.
“We can’t afford ORS [oral rehydration salts] to keep rehydrated. So, we only have drinking water.”
Ma Phoo Pwint, a representative of Anyar Pyi Taing Htaung, an IDP support group in Salingyi Township, confirmed that this year felt hotter than the previous one.
“Children have skin sores and older people are getting sick. A lot of people are suffering from dizziness,” she said of the health problems affecting IDPs.
IDPs’ biggest problems
The main problem facing IDPs is the lack of food and medicines, according to volunteer groups.
People are living in 6-feet-square spaces in a long row of tents, Depayin Refugee Support Group said.
Ma Phoo Pwint said Salingyi IDPs are also crowded together in schools and camps.
“They can’t sleep well because both roofs and floors are hot. They have no place to avoid the heat like city dwellers,” Ma Phoo Pyint told The Irrawaddy.
The IDPs in Wetlet Township live on bare ground covered by tarpaulin and rags. They don’t even have a mat to sit on, said Ko Nay Min Khant, a representative of the Shwebo Township support group.
“They can’t even walk to the forest nearby under the severe heat. So, they just live in their makeshift huts even in daytime and suffer the heat.”
Volunteers are supporting the IDPs with donations from well-wishers at home and abroad.
Anyar Pyit Taing Htaung distributes food to 1,000 IDPs in Salingyi Township and is about to start handing out tarpaulin. The Depayin Refugee Support Group is preparing to deliver rice and cooking oil.
IDPs, homeless, children and the elderly are at high risk of heatstroke, according to the National Unity Government’s Health Ministry. Its guidance to prevent heatstroke is to drink water with rehydration salts, avoid direct sunlight, and stay in the shade between noon and 4 pm.
But while the ground and air may be hot, nothing exceeds the heat of IDPs’ inner torment, one volunteer commented.
Daw Hla Hla Yi agreed, adding that she was desperate to return home as soon as possible.
“We would be able to bear this [heat] if we were in our homes,” she said.
