UNDP launches early recovery support to flood-affected communities in Kyaikmaraw Township, Mon State

December 13, 2018

     

Kyaikmaraw Township, Mon State –  Yesterday, UNDP Myanmar launched its early recovery support to flood-affected communities in Kyaikmaraw Township in Mon State.  Kyaikmaraw is one of the severely affected Townships by the monsoon floods in July and August this year. The mini launch event was held in the Township General Administration Department (GAD)’s conference hall and was attended by the Mon State Authorities, Township Officials and UNDP.

Representing the Mon State government was the Minister of Kayin Ethnic Affairs, Honorable Minister U Aung Myint Khaing and the Director of Department of Disaster Management, U Tahung Shwe. Meanwhile the Kyaikmaraw Member of the Parliament, Honorable Daw Khin Myo Myint and the Township Administrator U Kyaw Lwin represented the Township Authorities.  UNDP also graced the event led by the Head of the UNDP Mon State Field Office, Daw Ni Ni Lwin and staff from UNDP Office in Yangon.

Of this launch of the UNDP early recovery support in Mon, the Honorable Minister U Aung Myint Khaing said, “I am very pleased that UNDP is implementing the early recovery support project in Kyaikmayaw targeting the flood affected communities. Mon State Government have successfully managed the flood disasters during the emergency period and getting started in the recovery stage. He further highlighted the experience as a good practice having effective communication among different stakeholders such as State Government, Government Departments, UN Agencies, and INGO/NGOs through an effective cooperation and collaboration”.

The DDM Director, U Thaung Shwe highlighted the roles played by different stakeholders for the effective management of the flood response and early recovery.  He further added, “Currently DDM is a co-Secretariat of the Disaster Management Committee (DMC) and a focal department for coordination among different stakeholders in disaster management.  I am also very pleased to have UNDP for early recovery support activities in Kyaikmayaw that is the result of effective coordination”.

The Township Administrator has this to say, “I am very thankful to UNDP for the early recovery support activities in Kyaikmayaw and we are happy to support the implementation”.

Meanwhile, UNDP stressed that as part of its mandate as a global cluster lead for early recovery, it hopes that this support will enable the flood-affected people recover fast, build back better and to develop capacities of the Government of Myanmar at all levels on disaster risk reduction, preparedness, response and resilient recovery. “UNDP will support the early recovery support activities, including livelihoods enhancement to flood affected communities through creation of employment, assistance to farmers, and delivering the capacity building trainings to the respective government departments at the state and township levels“, said Daw Ni Ni Lwin.

Some of the flood-affected people were also present during the launch and Daw Khaing Khaing Yi said, “thanks to UNDP for supporting the flood affected communities by providing the fuel for irrigation of paddy fields. We had no experiences in the past getting the support like this and thus we are very grateful”. In addition, U Phe Than also expressed his gratefulness to UNDP for this timely assistance to help them recover from the impacts of the floods on their livelihoods. “I would like to mention on behalf of the flood affected communities that I am very delighted to get support from UNDP to farmers for providing the fuel for irrigation of paddy fields”, he said.

The launch was also marked by the first of a 3-day series of distribution of fuel vouchers benefiting a total of 1583 women and men farmer-small landholders, farmer-tillers and tenants. The fuel is provided as a support to the operations of water pumps to irrigate about 5,500 acres of paddy farms recently replanted to enable agriculture and/or livelihoods recovery of the affected population. The intervention complements the early recovery work undertaken by the Government of Myanmar to help affected communities, in particular farmers, to recovery from the flood impact.

Also included in the UNDP’s early recovery interventions are the dredging of at least 4-5 rivers to clear-up Rivers of sediments and sludge deposited and accumulated in the river beds and the cash-for-work activities that will benefit a total of 1,000 individuals.  Implementation of these interventions will immediately follow next month.

For additional information, please email UNDP Myanmar communications team: