People navigate by boat through floodwaters reaching the rooftops of some buildings in Kangyidaunt Township
near Kyaunggon Township in the Irrawaddy Delta region. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) |A woman rows her boat in Kangyidaunt Township near Kyaunggon Township in the Irrawaddy Delta. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A girl with her dog aboard paddles through floodwaters in Kangyidaunt Township in the Irrawaddy Delta. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)| A flood relief camp has popped up along a railway line to shelter residents of Phaya Ni village displaced by rising waters. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A flood relief camp has popped up along a railway line to shelter residents of Phaya Ni village displaced by rising waters. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|Even at the camp
floodwaters are a reality
though far less a concern than at Phaya Ni village. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|Women wade through shin-deep water at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A man bathes himself with floodwater at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A boy waits for a food donation at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A family prepares their food at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A wooden boat navigates along a submerged section of the road linking Pathein
Irrawaddy Division
and Rangoon as a truck approaches. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)|A family look out at high waters from inside their temporary shelter. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
Women wade through shin-deep water at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
A man bathes himself with floodwater at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
A boy waits for a food donation at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
A family prepares their food at a flood relief camp where residents of Phaya Ni village have taken refuge. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
A wooden boat navigates along a submerged section of the road linking Pathein, Irrawaddy Division, and Rangoon as a truck approaches. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
A family look out at high waters from inside their temporary shelter. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)
KYAUNGGON TOWNSHIP, Irrawaddy Division — Residents of the Irrawaddy Delta continue to reel from widespread, severe flooding that the region has suffered since mid-July, with thousands forced to abandon their inundated homes in search of higher ground.
Burma’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement has said that as of Monday, more than 400,000 people in the delta have been affected by rising waters in the region, caused by both localized monsoon rains and the emptying into the Andaman Sea of upstream rivers that have been swollen for weeks by similar weather in northern Burma. The ministry said it had also recorded three flood-related deaths in the delta, out of more than 100 fatalities nationwide.
On Friday, The Irrawaddy’s photographer Hein Htet visited one of the makeshift displacement camps near Kyaunggon Township on the road linking Burma’s biggest city Rangoon with Pathein, the capital of Irrawaddy Division. It is there that about 140 families from Phaya Ni village have been taking refuge for the last two weeks, after their entire village was submerged by rising waters in the low-lying delta region.
