Tens of thousands of people have been made homeless in Myanmar's Ayeyawaddy River delta after unusually heavy rains triggered floods in this low-lying region, local officials said on Monday. State media in military-ruled Myanmar have made little mention of the floods, but local officials and residents said that at least 18 villages are under water.
About 10,000 homes have been hit by the floods, according to local officials and residents. Eight schools have been closed and about 40,000 acres of rice paddies were destroyed, according to an agriculture department official. In the village of Athok, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of the nation's economic hub Yangon, residents are living on bamboo scaffolding built near their homes to try to stay above the water.
"The whole village has been flooded for about a week. Other nearby villages have also flooded," an Athok village official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. "The village authorities are delivering rice donated by local businessmen to the victims," he said.
Neither national authorities nor the Red Cross were seen in the area, leaving villagers largely to fend for themselves. Some made tents along the roads, while dozens of families took shelter inside the village railway station, on a football field, and inside Buddhist temples.
"We can't afford to build a bamboo shelter at our house. That's why we moved to this train station," said Aye Myint, a 48-year-old farm worker seeking shelter at the train station. "I cannot earn any income because of the flood, and I spent a day without eating while I waded through the water to get here," he said. "We just worry about finding rice. We can get salt and chili, and we've been able to catch fish in the water."
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