Medical supplies urgently needed in Rakhine State
A large number of residents in The Khon village of Myay Ngu island under Pauktaw township in Rakhine State are suffering from skin diseases due to unclean drinking water. Even many children are also facing the ailments, but they have no option to receive proper medical care.
“The main reason behind the skin diseases is the regular use of dirty water. Their whole bodies are infected with it and they are too poor to afford medical treatments,” said a village elder.
Currently, the military council and Arakan Army (AA) are maintaining peace after an informal ceasefire agreement in Rakhine State. But the city-based government health workers do not prefer to go to rural areas citing the security reasons. AA members also cannot arrange the needed healthcare in the villages under their control.
“As a consequence of the armed conflicts, the public healthcare system collapses in various parts of Rakhine State. Already poor in shape, the State healthcare services have turned worse now,” said a local Good Samaritan.
He argues that the vacuum should be filled up by the international organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN).
“Though the skin diseases are common in the villages, the new one is causing because of unclean water uses. Most of the wells are dried up and the villagers have to depend on different sources of dirty water. Once the villagers get sick they can not earn and finally they have to
live without treating their ailments. So we need outside support,” said The Khon village administrator.
The Khon is a large fishing village with about 400 households (around 1900 population).
In October last year, all the ponds of the village were flooded with the seawater due to a storm. Now the wells around the village have only salty water. The saline water turned harmful to the villagers.
“The water is quite salty. So the skin disease outbreak this year becomes more prevalent. Many sudents and children are also getting scabies. They have to suffer for nearly three months”, added the village administrator.
A 25-year-old woman hailing from the village informed that the affected girls are now avoiding going out because of the skin problems.
“Initially scabies-like spots are seen on the skin of affected people. Then the rashes emerge and spread to different places. Along with some people, I also applied some medicines brought from a Sittwe clinic, but that is not working. So the urgent need becomes the supply of clean water,” she added.
