More than a hundred families in Hmawbi Township, some 50 kilometres north of Rangoon, are in urgent need of food and water after being displaced from their homes which were hit by flooding.

According to local government officials, 103 households in the village tracts of Myaungdaga and Myitkyo were forced to evacuate their inundated homes. The flood victims were provided shelter at a local monastery on 8 August.

The Hmawbi Township administrator’s office told DVB that although local authorities are managing assistance to the flood victims, they will soon have shortages of food and water.

Hwawbi MP Aung San Win said he plans to propose a motion at the Rangoon regional parliament, seeking assistance for the displaced families.

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Hmawbi also experienced severe flooding during last year’s monsoon, with around a thousand people affected.

According to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, some 99,285 households have been directly affected by flooding across Burma as of 9 August. It says that eight administrative regions have experienced monsoonal flooding and flash floods: Sagaing, Kachin, Mandalay, Pegu, Magwe, Mon, Rangoon and Irrawaddy.

The highest number of people affected was in Magwe Division – 205,530 – followed by 107,200 in Mandalay.

Five persons have been killed nationwide in the floods: two in Sagaing, two in Kachin, and one in Rangoon Division.