One Dies, Hundreds Homeless as Heavy Rains Hit Chin State

11 October 2010: A week-long heavy downpour across Chin State has triggered flash floods and landslides, causing major road blockades, crop destructions, and property damage, with at least one man reported killed.

Last week, Pu Huat Kam from Congthia village of Thantlang Township was killed by a flash flood while he was coming home from his farm.

In Paletwa, at least 300 people of about 90 households are left ‘homeless’ after their houses were mud-flooded or destroyed by a landslide near the Kaladan River in Southern Chin State.

“Due to heavy rains that has started on 8 October, the water level is rising so high that we cannot travel. It has been more than four days that the ferry boat between Kyautdaw and Paletwa has been stalled. Many people, especially living along the Kaladan River, have been in so much trouble,” said one local Christian pastor from Paletwa town.

Average annual rainfall in Chin State is 80-100 inches. The southern part of Chin State gets more rain due to the storms that come from the Bay of Begal.

“The amount of rainfall is so much higher than the average. It is impossible for us to travel as the roads are badly damaged, and a lot of villagers have faced problems tending their farms and harvesting their crops. The weather situation has been getting worse each year,” one of the community leaders in Thantlang told Chinland Guardian.

Several villages in Thantlang Township have reported having been unable to harvest their crops due to heavy rains that have brought big damage to their crops and fruits.

Meanwhile, other areas across Burma have been hit by heavy rains and floods that reportedly claim about a dozen lives with thousands more left homeless and about 2,000 being hospitalised in the hardest hit part of Mandalay Division.

Van Biak Thang
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