By Joshua Carroll
YANGON
A United Nations humanitarian envoy said Saturday he was "very concerned" at deadly floods that are ravaging much of Myanmar, killing at least 27 and sweeping away homes amid severe downpours.
President Thein Sein on Saturday visited Sagaing state, one of the worst affected regions from which the military has based its relief efforts as thousands across the country took shelter in Buddhist monasteries.
“We have dispatched assessment teams to the most affected areas to evaluate the humanitarian situation and identify priorities in terms of water and sanitation, shelter, food, and other relief items,” said Eamonn Murphy, the U.N.’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.
More than 400,000 acres of farmland have been inundated and over 30,000 destroyed, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Immigration, while rail lines, roads and bridges have been cut off.
Heavy rain throughout June and July has also triggered landslides across the country.
Flooding in recent weeks has “severely affected” between 67,000 and 110,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Thein Sein on Friday issued and emergency declaration covering four of the worst-hit areas; Sagaing, Rakhine State, Magway and Chin State.
These areas have seen “huge destruction,” said the state-backed Global New light of Myanmar newspaper Saturday, adding that they would “face difficulty returning to normal conditions.”
All but one of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions have been hit by flash floods, putting strain on the country’s limited disaster response programs as rescue workers struggle to get access to affected areas.
In Rakhine, the second poorest state in the impoverished country after Chin, the situation is likely to be particularly dire for some 140,000 persecuted Rohingya Muslims who are in displacement camps following communal violence in 2012.
Many live in makeshift tents fashioned from tarpaulin and have limited access to food, drinking water and medicine.
At one camp more than 150 tents have been swept away in a storm.
Myanmar’s weather bureau said Friday that five of the country’s major rivers had risen to dangerous levels, state media reported.
Myanmar is badly prepared to deal with disasters despite being prone to earthquakes, cyclones and flash flooding.
In 2008 more than 100,000 people were killed when Cyclone Nargis struck the country’s southern delta region, wiping out entire communities.
