In May 2008 Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta killing about 140,000 people.
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China is ready to provide assistance for the flooding areas across Myanmar, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang told a press conference in Kalay township of Sagaing Region on Monday.
Thein Sein and military chief Min Aung Hlaing visited several affected regions over the weekend, and relief efforts appear to be significantly more coordinated in the wake of this year’s flooding, despite hampered access to some remote areas.
Meanwhile, most of the country’s major rivers have reached or above their danger level, said the Meteorology and Hydrology Department.
According to Myanmar’s Social Welfare Ministry, all but one of the country’s 14 provinces and regions have now been affected.
The Myanmar Red Cross has deployed 244 volunteers to help local authorities to evacuate victims and distribute items such as mosquito nets, tarpaulins, toiletries, cooking sets and water purification tablets, said Araceli Lloret, disaster management coordinator for the global Federation of the Red Cross.
He also said that four people remain missing since the floods began.
Heavy rains in Myanmar have caused more flooding and left at least 47 people dead.
“We are expecting the number of both fatalities and people affected to increase as information comes in”, said Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, in Myanmar.
On Thursday, he urged Cabinet ministers to go out into the field to supervise flood relief operations, saying that since July 16, some areas of the country had become inundated by heavy rains that destroyed farmland, roads, rail lines, bridges and houses.
Rakhine and Chin states in the west were among the four worst-affected areas. We need drinking water urgently.
In Vietnam, rescuers were battling toxic mudslides from flood-hit coal mines in northern Quang Ninh, home to the Unesco-listed Halong Bay tourist site.
The annual monsoon is a lifeline for farmers across the region but heavy rains and powerful cyclones can also prove deadly.
UNICEF is working closely with other UN agencies is working closely with the Myanmar authorities, dispatching assessment teams to affected areas to identify the priority needs of children and families in terms of water and sanitation, health care, and nutrition.
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Rescue workers have been mobilized across the country but the sheer extent of the flooding is testing the government’s limited capacity to cope with disasters, officials admit.
