Hundreds of Schools Remain Shuttered in Mon State Due to Flooding
Streams in the area overflowed due to unusually heavy rainfall, and water levels have not dropped in Ye and Kyaikmayaw.
By NETWORK MEDIA GROUP (NMG)
Friday, August 16, 2019
Schools are still shut down in areas severely affected by flooding in Mon State, including Ye and Kyaikmayaw townships, the director of the state’s education department said.
Streams in the area overflowed due to unusually heavy rainfall, and up to 300 schools—140 in Ye and 150 in Kyaikmayaw—have been closed, Dr. Cho Cho Myat Aung told NMG. Water levels have not dropped in these townships.
“Schools are running as evacuation camps,” the education director said.
Some 611 schools were closed in Belin, Kyaikhto, Thaton, Kyaikmayaw, Ye, Paung, Thanbyuzayat, Mudon, Chaungzon, and Mawlamyine townships from August 6-11. After water levels receded on August 12, schools opened again in Thanbyuzayat, Belin, Thaton, Paung and Mawlamyine the following day.
The military, civil society organizations, rescue teams, and locals are cleaning out the mud and debris in schools that have reopened.
Dr. Cho Cho Myat Aung said that more than 110 million kyat (US$72,535) has been done in damage to schools, and that the state has sent a list of the affected schools to the Union education ministry and the Mon State government. The state’s education department will reportedly provide learning materials and course books after the flooding.
According to office of Mon state’s education department, there are total of 1,506 schools in Mon state.
Mon State has experienced flooding since the first week of August due to heavy rainfall. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected and more than 30,000 people have been relocated to evacuation camps. Some 70 people were killed in a landslide in Paung Township.
“Currently, both houses and schools are flooded. We can see roofs of some houses. People have been relocated into safe placse,” Daw Tin Tin Win, who lives in Kyaikmayaw, told NMG.
