UN refugee agency, partners distribute relief to flood victims in Myanmar

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday that despite strong winds, heavy rains and serious flooding, its teams, other UN and aid organization staff have reached camps for displaced people in Rakhine's capital, Sittwe, and other nearby towns in Myanmar, a UN spokesman told reporters here Tuesday.

UNHCR said an assessment of 24 camps has found that a quarter of temporary shelters have been damaged and more than 21,000 people have been affected as a result, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said at a daily news briefing.

"UNHCR and its partners are still looking at the impact of the cyclone on displaced people in Rakhine and Kachin to identify immediate needs and distribute relief items," Haq said.

In Maungdaw in Rakhine, more than 2,000 households have been affected, but receding flood waters have allowed many evacuated families to return home in recent days, he said.

"UNHCR has distributed relief items such as blankets, mats and buckets to people sheltering in official reception centers as well as to others," he said.

In Kachin state, which is home to over 100,000 conflict- displaced people, the impact of recent rains and floods has been less extensive, he said. "At the government's request, UNHCR and its partners have examined conditions in Mogaung township, and of the four camps for the displaced visited, one was flooded and nine displaced families were relocated."

Flooding caused by heavy rainfall in late July has hit people of 42 townships in Myanmar's 12 regions and states, destroying houses, farmland, railway lines, bridges and roads, reports said.

A total of 31 relief camps were opened for disaster-affected people in Kayin and Mon states as well as Bago region.

Chin and Rakhine states, as well as Sagaing and Magway regions were declared as the disaster-hit areas, the government announced on Friday.

Water levels in Myanmar's five major rivers, the Ayeyawady, Chindwin Thanlwin, Sittoung and Ngawun are dangerously high and likely to exceed flood warning benchmarks over the next two days, the reports said.

The weather bureau also warned of heavy rain in Magway, Sagaing, Bago, Taninthayi and Yangon regions, as well as Rakhine and Chin States, due to deep depression formed over Bangladesh and more torrential rain is expected in the coming days.

A national disaster preparedness committee is making evacuation and resettlement efforts in Ayeyawaddy and Bago regions, as well as Kayin and Mon states, which are also experiencing floods. Endite