Government’s emergency water supply ready for 500 villages nationwide.
In case of water shortage this summer, the government has set aside emergency water supply for 500 villages around Myanmar.
Rural Development Department director U Kyaw Thu Aung from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation said surveys have revealed that villages in Mandalay Region, Kayah and Rakhine states faced high possibilities of water shortages.
U Kyaw Thu Aung said the government had also allocated K81.5 million worth of fuel cost to township offices under the emergency water supply program, in case the villages face water shortages.
U Kyaw Thu Aung said the water shortage this time might not be as severe as last year’s but the government was not taking chances.
Due to the El Nino phenomenon last year, the department estimated over 1000 villages to face water shortages.
The severity of the problem was reduced following measures such as the digging of ponds and prioritised water distribution to villages in a 100-day program by the new government.
U Kyaw Thu Aung said the 368 ponds dug last year would help alleviate concerns of water shortage this year, by storing enough rain water.
Water shortages are common in Myanmar’s hot and dry zones, affecting all states and regions.
Those wells had been supplying water to locals.