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Switzerland increases emergency aid to Myanmar by 500,000 CHF

Xinhua, August 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) announced on Monday that an additional 500,000 Swiss francs (512,583 U.S. dollars) of aid will be sent to flood-ravaged Myanmar to assist people in urgent need of water, food and temporary shelter.

Allocated by Swiss Humanitarian Aid, this brings the confederation's emergency aid contribution to the southeast Asian country to over 600,000 francs after 126,000 U.S. dollars were sent by Switzerland at the beginning of August.

According to FDFA, funds will be used to finance activities carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), especially in areas covering food and health kits distribution, as well as the setting up of safe drinking water access points.

Figures show that over 1.3 million people have been directly affected by heavy rain which has resulted in widespread inundation affecting much of the country since the end of July.

Over 680,000 hectares of farmland have furthermore been damaged by flooding, FDFA indicated, while warning that the medium term repercussions of the natural disaster are already being felt.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently reported that close to 300,000 households have been or remain displaced, and that over 100 people have lost their lives because of monsoonal floods and landslides. Endit