(Reuters) — Television footage in Myanmar on Monday (August 3) showed flood waters affecting many areas of the country after deadly monsoon rains displaced tens of thousands of people and flooded swathes of rice paddies.
The storm and floods have killed at least 27 people, according to government figures while the figure is expected to rise, according to a United Nations report.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a statement said over 150,000 people have been affected across the country as of August 1.
Water levels were as high as 2.5 metres (eight feet) in Sagaing and 4.5 metres (14 feet) in western Rakhine state, according to the government, which on Friday (July 31) declared four regions disaster zones.
“Many paddy fields were damaged. I’m here today with the flood victims to find out possible ways to support and replace their loss. The water level is starting to drop slowly. Myanmar government team will try our best to help them for resettlement and recovery process,” President Thein Sein told a group of reporters during his visit to a disaster area over the weekend.
The state-owned Kyemon Daily reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation as saying that more than 970,000 acres (392,000 hectares) of farmland, most of it rice paddy, had been damaged and more than 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) were completely lost.
A reporter from Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) showed the depth of the waters in Bago Town as he stood in chest-deep flood waters reporting on the situation.
Myanmar was inundated throughout last month and storms since July 22 have “severely affected” between 67,000 and 110,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Though rain has stopped in most areas, the recovery effort is a major test for impoverished Myanmar. The country has only basic infrastructure and medical facilities and is ill-equipped to deal with disasters, as shown when Cyclone Nargis battered the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008, killing 130,000 people.