Asian Development Bank offers aid for Myanmar's flood relief

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will extend a 3- million-U.S. dollar aid for Myanmar's flood relief efforts, an official report said Thursday.

The grant will be issued from ADB's Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, which was established to meet priority need and restore live-saving services to communities affected by natural disaster, a statement of the ADB was quoted as saying.

The ADB will consider mobilizing new resources for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and affected livelihood, it also said, vowing to work in close coordination with the development community to gear ADB's efforts supporting the Myanmar government at national and region or state level.

Deadly flood, triggered by heavy rainfall since June, has affected 14 regions and states in Myanmar, destroying houses, farmland, railway lines, bridges and roads.

The Myanmar government declared on July 31 four disaster zones namely Rakhine, Chin, Sagaing and Magway, of which Rakhine state was the worst-hit.

Nationwide death toll of the severe flooding rose to more than 121 so far with Rakhine state suffering most casualties, affecting more than 1.6 million people across the country.

The flooding has inundated more than 584,792 hectares of farmland, destroying 319,764 hectares across the country including 87,984 hectares in Rakhine state, according to official figures. Endi