Canal dam breaks, flooding villages

by May Kyaw

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The left canal of Kinda dam in Myitha Township, Mandalay Division, cracked on the 16th of May, inundating 12 villages.

Incessant heavy rainfall is thought responsible for the collapse.

Following the break, four-foot high water cut off communication to the villages and damaged roads. Only after three days of the incident, was relief work able to commence.

People in Myitha have started providing relief materials such as food parcels and rice, but the exact amount of damage caused by the dam breaking has not been ascertained.

"We have started sending rice bags today but they have not yet reached the flooded villages. We are sending these rice bags via three-hand tractor trailers. Some villages are accessible but some as yet are not," a local resident told Mizzima.

On the same day a pond used by villagers from Nyaungbin village, in Nahtogyi Township near Myitha, overflowed its banks.

The overflowing of the pond flooded some villages in Nahtogyi Township and damaged roads in the area, preventing any relief efforts to date.

The left Kinda dam canal, which became operational in 1985, is a major hydroelectric, multi-purpose canal.