Youth rush to help households as 10,000 affected by Myitkyina flooding

Description: 

"Youth and former drug users volunteered support in Myitkyina as the Ayeyarwady River broke its banks and flooded the Kachin State capital, affecting more than 10,000 people. With water rapidly rising in several quarters of Myitkyina and residents packing and preparing to move, former drug users from the Care Hands Youth Reform Organisation, known in Jinghpaw as Ram Hkye Shalat, travelled to flood-affected neighbourhoods to help people move their possessions to safety. Brang San, 20, was working with a team of 12 at the home and art gallery of Nhkum Brang, in Shatapru ward, to carry the painter's work to higher ground on Friday night. "If the water comes, we will move everything," he told Frontier. "We will do what we need to do to help, even if it takes the whole night." On July 10 the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology issued a flood warning, which said the Ayeyarwady River was within a few feet of reaching danger levels in Myitkyina, Bhamo and Shwegu. The department also warned that the river could reach these levels within two days in Myitkyina and Shwegu, and three days in Bhamo, and urged people in low-lying areas to take precautions. A boy leans out of the window of his flooded home in Gyet Poung Chan ward. (Emily Fishbein | Frontier) By July 11, much of Kachin National Manau Park in Myitkyina was submerged and the main gate was impassable. By the following evening at the park's riverside Lung Ga Pa Kachin Traditional Restaurant, only the thatched roofs of the restaurant's huts were visible..."

Creator/author: 

EMILY FISHBEIN

Source/publisher: 

Myanmar Water Portal

Date of Publication: 

2019-07-18

Date of entry: 

2019-07-24

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Geographic coverage: 

    • MYITKYINA

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good