Residents from the Rakhine State town of Minbya voiced that recent flooding to the Laymyo River is seeing daily erosion of the river that runs through the town.
A total of six households from Pyitawhla and Usawtint Wards within Minbya were swept away on 7-8 July, while more than 50 other dwellings are reportedly at risk from falling into the river. “All the houses along the stretch of the river bank will fall victim to the erosion. The water is crashing against the side of the river with great force. Just yesterday, our motorboat, which we had tied to the riverbank in front of our house, was also swept away with the collapsing of the bank. Now we don’t have anywhere to live.
Any assistance has not yet reached out us,” said Ma Soe Soe San, a victim of erosion along the Laymyo River.
“I’m 50 years old, and this river had been eroding the land around it ever since I was a boy. Villagers have had to keep moving back their houses from the path of the collapsing riverbanks. Some people have moved well away from the river,” said U Thein Htun, administrator of Pyitawhla Ward. Residents have voiced that between 20-50 feet of the banks of the Laymyo River collapse annually during the rainy season, while heavy deluges and flooding reportedly only succeeded in exacerbating the erosion.