Thandwe in need of relief supplies as floodwaters recede

Residents in Thandwe are in need of relief supplies after most urban neighbourhoods and some rural villages in the township flooded due to heavy rains, with high waters beginning to recede on Wednesday.

The floodwaters began to recede on Wednesday morning, but many residents still cannot return to their homes. More than 200 flood victims are sheltering at Theingon Monastery, according to the monastery’s abbot U Tezina.

“They can’t cook at their homes, which are now covered with mud. So I am feeding some flood victims, and some people have also donated food for them,” said the monk.

Affected residents would likely spend Wednesday cleaning their mud-covered houses, said Thandwe local Ko Zayar Tun.

“Silt was left at houses, and was ankle-deep. But there have been some difficulties to clean the silt. People have had to fetch water to rinse them out,” he said.  

Neighbourhoods in low-lying areas are still flooded, however, and shop owners have had their inventories damaged in the flooding.  

An oxygen plant in Thandwe funded by the Arakan State Administration Council was partly inundated.

The facility started production on July 24, and had so far refilled 80 oxygen cylinders, said U Tezina, who is helping with community-based anti-coronavirus efforts in Thandwe.

“Around 25% of the oxygen plant was inundated. The company that built the plant reportedly phoned yesterday and said it would fix the plant as it has a two-year guarantee,” said the monk.

Thandwe District Hospital was also grappling with floodwaters on Tuesday and Covid-19 patients on oxygen therapy had to be evacuated, said locals. Funerals were delayed as the township crematorium was flooded.

Electricity was cut off in Thandwe town after a local power plant was inundated. Authorities said firefighters helped clean up mud at the hospital on Wednesday as the floodwaters receded.

No deaths due to the flooding have been reported, and related financial losses were not yet known on Wednesday.  

Thandwe was hard-hit by the floods even as it struggles with a Covid-19 outbreak. Sixty-eight people in the township were hospitalised and receiving treatment for the virus as of Tuesday, according to the Arakan State Department of Public Health.