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Myanmar: Floods - Final Report (MDRMM006)

Countries
Myanmar
Sources
IFRC
Publication date
Origin
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Summary

One year on from the devastating floods that struck the country, around 400,000 people have received emergency assistance and support for their recovery from MRCS and its partners in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Out of that number, 58,000 people were covered through IFRC’s emergency appeal. An infographic of Red Cross milestones from July 2015 to September 2016 is provided on the next page.

Between July 2015 and September 2016, over 1,400 Red Cross volunteers and staff from MRCS and PNSs assisted flood-affected people across the country. The first phase of this operation (focusing on relief; lasted from July to October 2015) included evacuations, providing emergency relief such as purified water, food, household items and shelter materials. The second phase of this operation (focusing on recovery) began in November 2015 and was completed in September 2016. This phase saw more focus on supporting the longer – term recovery of flood-affected communities across the five worst-hit regions of Chin, Rakhine, Sagaing, Magway and Ayeyarwady.

These regions benefited from livelihood activities, cleaning of contaminated ponds and wells, and infrastructure rehabilitation. This included MRCS’ piloting of an unconditional cash transfer programme (CTP) intervention, building off MRCS’ previous experience with conditional CTP during Cyclone Nargis and American Red Cross’ Cash Preparedness Programme for MRCS.

The situation

An Emergency Appeal was launched following floods that affected several parts of Myanmar in July and August 2015. The floods were brought on by heavy monsoon rains coupled with high winds and heavy rain from Cyclone Komen which made landfall in neighbouring Bangladesh on 30 July 2015. It resulted in widespread flooding and landslides across 12 of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions. The flooding spread over a large area largely in the northwest, west, south and southwest of the country. At its peak, the floods affected over 9 million people across 12 of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions. According to Relief and Resettlement Department (RRD) figures, 149 people died and the floods temporarily displaced over 1.6 million people from 405,958 households. Over 15,000 homes were destroyed as well as more than 840,000 acres of agricultural crops. The high winds and heavy rain also disrupted transportation, electricity and communications and flooded several townships.