Due to continuous riverbank erosion is happing in Kawa and Thanatpin township, in Bago Region, more than a dozen of villages in both townships already disappeared and currently around 12 villages are being collapsed.
According to communities who suffered from riverbank erosion, they said with the current speed of erosion, in the next one to two years, more than 20 villages are going to be affected.
U Hla Ngwe, village administrator from Ma Mauk Village said “his village already disappeared in November 2017. All the villagers were facing difficulties to relocate as they have only limited assistance from regional government and donors.
Currently, around six thousand households and approximate 50,000 people are affected by erosion and require emergency responds including food, shelter, school, water containers and supply in dry season and health care.
Nearly 100,000 acres of farmlands were destroyed both by erosion and salinity. Their patterns of livelihood are changing and most of them have to rely on daily work income since jobs are very limited. Riverbank Erosion occurred since 2014 until now.