Severe flooding across Myanmar has hampered rescue efforts as thousands sheltered at monasteries after rising waters triggered by torrential rains killed at least 27 people, officials say.
Thein Sein, Myanmar’s president, headed to devastated rural regions where a state of emergency was declared after the deadly monsoon rains displaced tens of thousands of people, flooded swathes of paddy field and prompted fears of dams collapsing.
Sein was due to arrive on Saturday at a military base in Sagaing Division, a major rice growing area where soldiers are coordinating a relief effort after a month of rain over all but two of Myanmar’s 14 states.
Heavy monsoon rain has battered vast swathes of the country in recent weeks, decimating tens of thousands of homes and fields and leaving people stranded in remote villages in a disaster testing the government’s limited relief operations.
“Most of the country is flooded now,” said a director at the social welfare ministry who did not want to be named.
Rescue efforts by authorities and local aid groups were under way but they are “struggling to access flood-hit areas”, the official said, adding that there was no update to Thursday’s death toll of 27 due to disrupted communications.
(AL-Jazeera)
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