Monsoon Floods - Ayeyarwaddy Delta Region, Myanmar
the adventure
"The waters are rising fast!"
The monsoon rains and floods of July-August 2015, and the accompanying scale of devastation, had not been experienced since the time of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. 12 of Myanmar's 14 provinces had been seriously affected, with flood waters completely covering the roofs of homes in several areas. Sitting on low ground in the South facing the Bay of Bengal, the Ayeyarwaddy Delta, also known as Myanmar's rice bowl, would soon face the dual challanges of flood waters draining from the Northern regions, as well as "new" rain water from fresh heavy storms.
Travelling around the Delta with my Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) in early August 2015, I could see that the fast-flowing Ayeyarwaddy River was already swelling quickly. Though it was still early in the monsoon season, many homes were already under water, and the number of displaced families and injured livestock was rapidly rising. Water-related diseases would also soon follow. The entire Delta region of 6.1 million people would be at risk of another Nargis-like catastrophe!
At the invitation of the Chief Minister of the Ayeyarwaddy Region, we surveyed some of the ongoing flood protection measures. In Hithada, for example, we saw that these measures were unfortunately far from adequate, and it would be a matter of days before the water overwhelmed these defences and flooded homes on a massive scale.
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We offered recommendations for emergency actions, such as layering the immediate defences, and establishing early warning and evacuation procedures. But, it also became increasingly clear that viable, longer-term flood-resilience solutions were needed, so that the 6.1 million populace of the Delta could co-exist more sustainably with the water and weather.
Besides improving the Delta's physical flood management infrastructure, we ought to also consider building local ownership and response capacity in flood defence. By raising, training and equipping a flood defence unit in every one of the 11,600 village communities, we could exponentially improve flood preparation and response timeliness. Moreover, reliance on external and foreign assistance would also be greatly reduced.
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So, with these ideas and objectives in mind, Project Living With the Water began to take shape....
