IDPs face accommodation difficulties due to upcoming seasonal rains

By DMG 21 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 February 2022, Kyauktaw

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State townships such as Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, and Rathedaung face difficulties with accommodation due to unseasonal rain because their houses’ roofs and walls are decaying, those IDPs told DMG.

“We cannot afford to repair the roof and the wall of houses here, so IDPs are wet when it is raining. We have to wait for organisations to help us repair the shelters,” U Aung Hla Shwe, manager of Wartaung IDP camp in Kyauktaw, told DMG.

Ko Tun Chay Maung, an IDP from Wartaung refugee camp, told DMG that he was wet and had to sit the whole night due to the rain last night.

“The rain was heavy last night, and water leaked from the torn roof. So, we could not sleep and had to sit the whole night while it was raining,” he said.

“The house is not strong enough and the tarps are also torn,” he added.

U Aung Kyaw Win, manager of Taung Min Kala village, told DMG that local IDPs are worried about more rain.

“It is cloudy now. If it rains again today, all IDPs will be in trouble for accommodation because their houses cannot resist the heavy rain,” he said.

The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology has announced that there will be a few clouds or partly cloudy over the north and middle east of bay of Bengal and there will be scattered rain and thundershowers along the Arakan coast.

The recent unseasonal rain will affect the health of chronically sick patients, elderly people, children, infants and pregnant women, Sayadaw Nanda Thar Ra, manager of Myadasaung IDP camp, told DMG.

“I have planned to relocate them to a building in the monastery that is used for people if the rain is heavy. They will face some trouble when they have to move in the rain,” the monk said.

The monk has also called for the government, civil society organisations and international organisations to help the IDPs to be able to repair their houses in the camps.

More than 200,000 people in Arakan State became IDPs due to clashes between Myanmar military and Arakan Army for more than two years in the state. Some of them have returned home when fighting unofficially halted, but more than 80,000 IDPs have yet to return home.