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Evacuation urged in central Myanmar amid flood risk

Thursday, 06 August 2015 10:07 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 06 August 2015 10:07 AM ]

This file photo shows an aerial view of flooded areas in Hinthada in Myanmar. (AFP photo)

Myanmar’s president has called for the evacuation of people from low-lying areas in central Myanmar, where the Irrawaddy River is likely to breach embankments amid heavy rainfall.

President Thein Sein warned on Thursday that areas near the Irrawaddy were at risk as the river is rising to the “above danger level.”

“As we cannot prevent natural disasters, I urge fellow citizens to move to safer places... it’s the best way,” he said in an address to the people in a televised speech.

He added that the Hinthada and Nyaung Don townships located in the center of the country along the river were in immediate danger.

A boy looks on from a flooded house at Nyaung Don township in Myanmar. (AFP photo)

The army across the country helped residents prepare for floods, securing belongings inside homes and reinforcing river embankments with sand bags.

Twelve of Myanmar’s 14 regions have been affected by floods, with officials saying that 74 people have been killed and more than 330,000 affected.

Many of those who have fled their homes were forced into monasteries and other makeshift shelters after their homes were destroyed.

An aerial view shows massive flooding over Mrauk-U township, in Rakhine State on August 5, 2015. (AFP photo)

Relief agencies said floods receded in some northern and western areas allowing much-needed supplies of food and clean water to arrive to different areas across Myanmar.

However, according to rescue workers, landslides were still a threat.

A flood-affected girl holds money in her mouth as she uses a flotation tube at Nyaung Don township in Myanmar. (AFP photo)

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) said more than a million acres of farmland have been flooded, devastating the stable rice crop, with more rains forecasted.

Floods from a heavy monsoon season have cut through swathes of South and Southeast Asia in recent weeks, claiming hundreds of lives and displacing millions of people in several countries.

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