Residents of Chaungzon Township are being required to repair roads damaged by the recent rainy season. Each village in the township, located on Belukyn Island, just off the cost of Mon State’s capital city of Moulmein, is responsible for fixing adjacent sections of road.

“In our village we have to repair the road like this because the government ignores about it. During the rainy season the road is muddy. At the end of the rainy season, the road dries and becomes full of ruts and potholes. Trucks cannot drive on it because it is dangerous. Without repairs, only motorcycles can use the road,” said a woman from Mudu village. “If we wait for the government to repair the road, we will die of old age before the government acts.”

Every household has to provide one laborer who can join the work parties. “In our village we have to go and repair the road. One person from each family has to go when it is the turn for their ward. They have to bring their own food. They start at 7am. At 11am they will take a rest and have lunch. And then they will work again from 1pm until 3pm,” said a woman from Kamar Moe village. Workers have to haul sand and stones, which they use to fill in ruts and potholes.

Belukyn Island is nearly the size of Singapore, though it does not approach the island city-state’s population density. It is nevertheless home to at least seventy villages, and kilometers of roads. Roads on the island are made of dirt and clay, with the exception of a five kilometer stretch between the Ka Lawe ferry dock and Dawng U village, and a forty kilometer loop connecting Dawng U to Chaungzon town.

This main road was made with stones by the government between 1999 and 2000, but has not been maintained. IMNA sources report that it has deteriorated each year, though the damage is not as extensive as that suffered by the dirt roads.

“As I remember, I have never seen the government repair the roads. When I got to 8th standard, me and the other students had to help repair the road near our village. At that time, the abbot directed the villagers to repair the road every year. In other villages, the headman tells the villagers to repair the road,” said girl from Dayel village, 22.

According to the girl from Dayel, the abbot told her village that assisting with the repairs would bring them good karma. The penalty for refusing to “volunteer,” however, is unclear. When the IMNA source from Kamar Moe was asked, she decline to comment for fear of her village headman. A former resident of Belukyn, now in Sankghlaburi, just across Burma’s eastern border with Thailand, told IMNA that in the past villagers have been fined for not helping.