Providing access to clean water for children in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

By Mariana Palavra

 

25 year old Nour Hartu with her youngest daughter Tosmin Ara, A Nauk Ywe village, Rakhine State.
©UNICEF Myanmar/2015/Myo Thame

Children and families in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are still recovering from the sectarian violence that erupted in 2012. Many live in camps, where they are vulnerable to both water shortages and floods. UNICEF is currently helping flood-affected families to access clean water, but when we visited in early June, they faced the opposite problem – water shortages caused by a prolonged period of drought.

Partnerships in early recovery work with WASH

By Theingi Soe, UNICEF Water and Sanitation (WASH) Specialist

Young people in Ayeyarawaddy Region are struggling to stay afloat, with muddy water inundating all sources for drinking and bathing
©UNICEF Myanmar/2015/Theingi Soe

Ayeyarawaddy Region Myanmar - 17 August 2015: Assessing the flood situation in Ayeyarawaddy Region, my UNICEF colleagues and I visited seven townships and found all the water sources inundated with mud. Before the floods, people here used to get all their drinking water from the boreholes and hand dug wells. Now they must drink bottled water as the well water is unsafe for drinking or bathing. If people bathe in this dirty water, they can get scabies and other skin diseases.

A child’s eye on Cyclone Komen

By Thiha Htun

 

Than Than Aye in her damaged home in Kha Ye Myaing Village, Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State
©UNICEF Myanmar/2015/Thiha Htun

Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State, Myanmar – 12 August 2015:  Ten-year-old Than Than Aye experienced first-hand the horrors of Cyclone Komen on 30 July and is living amongst the aftermath. The young student stays with her parents, two elder sisters and younger brother in Kha Ye Myaing village, Maungdaw Township, one of the hardest-hit by the strong winds and flooding. Many people in Than Than Aye’s village have lost their homes.

Facing the flood aftermath

Sagaing State, Northwest Myanmar, 13 August 2015

Photos by Myo Thame

Children and their families in Kalay Township in the Sagaing region of northwest Myanmar, have witnessed some of the worst devastation from the floods. Some villages have been almost completely destroyed.

As flood levels begin slowly receding in northern regions like Sagaing, water continues to move downstream, posing serious threats to over 300,000 persons in Ayeyarwaddy and Bago regions.

UNICEF together with other UN agencies, is working closely with the Myanmar authorities to assess flood damages, to deliver urgent aid to meet immediate and recovery needs for clean and safe water, emergency health care, school and shelter repairs, and psychosocial support for children.



Five miles from Kalay Township in Sagaing Province, one of the areas worst hit by the flooding, houses and schools have been destroyed

© UNICEF Myanmar/2015/Myo Thame

Photos: Myanmar flood

UNICEF staff assesses the needs of children and families in Lai Nyin Tha village,
 Mrauk U township, one of the worst-hit areas in Rakhine State.
©UNICEF Myanamr/2015/Than Tin

Myanmar has been suffering damaging floods following weeks of heavy rains, with rains and winds from cyclone Komen that made landfall in Bangladesh on 30 July. As of beginning of August, the floods killed more than 50 people and have affected around 259,000 across the country, of which over 88,000 are children.