Dr Win Myat Aye (Union Minister)

By HAN LIN NAING

THE Chairman of Coordinating Body for Rehabilitating Disaster-Affected Region and Union Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Dr Win Myat Aye was interviewed with respect to rehabilitation in disaster affected regions . The interviewed is as follow.

The flood is affecting Bago, Mom, Kayin, Ayeyarwady, Tanintharyi, Yangon, Saging, Mandalay, Magway, Kachin, Chin and Rakhine. Our priority is to prevent fatalities regarding flood. The major cause of death is ignorant that people get into the flood water thinking this flood is nothing more serious than former ones. Now, five people in Magway, Kachin, Taninthari and Mandalay have lost their lives getting drag by flood water.

The landslide in Paung township, Mon state was responsible for the largest death toll. About 169 people suffer it. We have now recovered 65 bodies. This misfortune taught us lesson that landslides cause massive fatalities while annual floods do not.

We are now working towards helping flood affected people get back to normal by arranging food and rebuilding their houses. Our Ministry mainly takes charge of natural disaster and is working with supervisor of National Disaster Management.

This year, we gave money for a week’s rice to flood affected states and regions. We will continue to provide rice if the people are unable get back in business. This year, we have spent 340 million on rice and death. There are donations from state and region governmental organization and other donors.

Another thing we are working on is evaluating the cause flood. It was found that there was high precipitation in a short time and creeks and rivers were blocked. Despite upgrading the drainage system in areas subject to flooding, there were still places affected by the disaster.

We carried out preparation in flood-prone areas but some places which we thought might be flooding would not be affect by flood. For example, when comparing Belin with Ye concerning possibility of flood, Belin was anticipated to be more likely to be flooded which led us to keep boats on standby there. But flood hit Ye. It was unpredictable. Because of streams that run down from the mountain and heavy fall caused worst flood in that area in 30 year time. Despite lack of preparation in Ye, our response is now faster than ever. We were able to send boats kept on standby to the area overnight. This is speedy response.

Our weakness was that we could not provide sufficient rescue training and procedures in case of disaster. We had a lot of drill regarding earthquake and storm but not many for flood. Now that we have learnt the lesson, we will later focus on flood drill.

In brief, we could offer speedy response concerning this disaster. There were a lot of assistances on standby despite our weakness in preparation. We will work toward bringing about speedy and systematic response. Mostly importantly, people must realize that the climate is changing not only in Myanmar but in the world. Some of the disaster can be predicted but some cannot be.

The flood of Ye has been described as the worst in 30 years. Disasters can strike without prior warning. For that reason, public collaboration is important in preparation and simulation drills for affective prevention of natural hazards.

Public collaboration is became in natural disasters, and youth are very active. On our part, we are always aiming for the better. We are working towards better natural disaster response. Last year, Ministries of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, Construction, Transportation and Communication and other related ministries worked together to form rehabilitation coordination unit. Their work has been effective so far. (Translated by Alphonsus)