Severe flooding in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

began in July 2015 and continued into September, affecting 12 of the country's 14 states, resulting in about 103 deaths and affecting up to 1,000,000 people. Most of the casualties were reported from the

Irrawaddy Delta The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Irrawaddy Division, the lowest expanse of land in Myanmar that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to the south at the mouth of the A ...

. Torrential rains that began on 16 July destroyed farmland, roads, rail tracks, bridges and houses, leading the government to declare a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

on 30 July in the four worst-hit regions in the west—

Magway Division Magway Region ( my, မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Magway Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative division in central Myanmar. It is the second largest of Myanmar's seven divisions, ...

Sagaing Division Sagaing Region ( my, စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Sagaing Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the north-western part of the country between latitude 21° 30' north and lon ...

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur t ...

and

Rakhine State Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady R ...

. Myanmar's Ministry of Agriculture reported that more than 1.29 million acres of farm land have been inundated and 687,200 acres damaged. Moreover, 15,239 houses were destroyed, according to OCHA figures.

Background

Beginning on 16 July 2015, unusually heavy

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

rain fell on Myanmar, causing rivers and creeks to overflow with rainwater and flooding low-lying areas around waterways. By August, the flooding was the worst to affect the country for decades. In addition to the higher-than-average rainfall, mismanagement of irrigation projects and

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

caused by logging have been cited by U Win Myo Thu, head of environmental organization EcoDev, as contributing to the flooding.

Cyclone Komen Cyclonic Storm Komen was an unusual tropical cyclone that originated near the southern coast of Bangladesh and later struck the same country while drifting over the northern Bay of Bengal. The second named storm of the 2015 season, Komen brought ...

, which struck in late July, also made the situation worse.

Affected areas

Sagaing Division

, more than of farmlands are flooded and were destroyed.

Kalay Township Kale Township is a township in Kale District in the Sagaing Division of Burma (Myanmar). The principal town is Kalay.

was severely affected by flooding; news reports showed the welcome signboard of the town completely submerged underwater. Kantbalu was also severely affected.

Magway Division

Overspills of Mone and Man creek affected 300 villages as well as town area in

Pwintbyu Pwintbyu ( my, ပွင့်ဖြူမြို့) is the principal town of Pwintbyu Township in Minbu District in Magway Region of Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions r ...

Sidoktaya Sidoktaya, also Sitoktaya or Setoketaya ( my, စေတုတ္တရာမြို့) is a town and seat of Sidoktaya Township in Minbu District of Magway Division, situated in middle west region of Burma. It is bordered with Salin t ...

and

Ngape Ngape Township ( my, ငဖဲ မြို့နယ်) is a Townships of Myanmar, township of Minbu District in the Magway Division of Myanmar. The principal town is Ngape. References References

Townships of Magway Region {{Magway-geo- ...

. Sinbyugyun, a city in Magway Division, was not affected by the flood.

Relief efforts

The government has been accused of responding slowly to the crisis. However, unlike in 2008 during

Cyclone Nargis Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis ( my, နာဂစ်, ur, نرگس ) was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar during early May 2008. The cyclone m ...

when it refused outside help, this time around the government has sought international aid. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

pledged $9m (£6m) in assistance. The UN's World Food Programme has delivered aid to 82,000 people in the worst hit parts of western Myanmar.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Myanmar Flood Information
2015 in Myanmar Floods in Myanmar 2015 floods in Asia Sagaing Region Magway Region History of Rakhine Chin State 2015 disasters in Myanmar