5 May

Natural Disaster Management Committee (NDMC) Chairman Vice President U Henry Van Thio accompanied by Ayeyawady Region Chief Minister U Hla Moe Aung, Deputy Ministers U Hla Kyaw and U Kyaw Myo and officials inspected the construction of Ayeyawady Hinthada Zalun Township portion of Thekon-Nyaing Aing Pan levee constructed with NDMC funds K 990.868 million yesterday.

Vice President U Henry Van Thio arrived in Zalun Town in the morning and Irrigation and Water Utilisation Management Department (IWUMD) Deputy Director General U Bo Bo Kyaw explained about the construction of levee, Directorate of Water Resources and Improvement of River Systems (DWIR) acting Director General U Win Hlaing explained about Ayeyawady River water way and embankment maintenance works near the levee and Region Chief Minister U Hla Moe Aung provided additional explanations at the Myat Zalun Hall.

With regard to the explanations the Vice President said emphasis must be placed toward quality in striving to complete the construction of the levee before the start of the rains. In the long run DWIR was to allocate fund annually for stress embankment maintenance work and silt dredging work near the levee to widen the water way.

While these were being conducted IWUMD was constructing the new levee to prevent damage in the region if there were overflowing of river and embankment erosion. Therefore the maintenance of the the Ayeyawady Hinthada levee needs to be coordinated and that there should be cooperation between the two departments. In conducting maintenance of embankments and improvement of waterways, methods that were appropriate for the region need to be discovered and calculation made to conduct works according to allocated funds.

Next the Vice President inspected the construction of the levee with machineries, dredging a sandbar near the levee with a dredging machine to change the water way, embankment protection works conducted and a breach that occurred near 22/2 milepost of the levee.

The levee construction was 97 percent completed and with the construction of this new levee more than 300,000 acres of farmlands, a population of 1,255,168 from 286,615 households in 476 wards and village tracts of Zalun, Kyonpyaw, Yekyi, Danubyu, Kyaunggon and Ngathaingchaung townships will be protected from the danger of flooding and inundation.

After paying homage and donating money to the Zalun Manaungmyin Pyi Taw Pyan Pagoda, the Vice President left Zalun by car and reached Yangon in the afternoon. — MNA (Translated by Zaw Min)