Labutta faces water shortages

Labutta faces water shortages
Yangon, January 24, 2009
Couple of villages, in Labutta Township, one of Myanmar cyclone most affected area are facing the water shortage as the dry season begins to bite said INGO base manager form labutta.
Huge amount of villagers from this area depended on water ponds for fresh water before the storm nargics, but after May 2008 storm communal water ponds which were badly affected by salty water from the storm tide.
“Labutta INGO cluster meeting recently decided to focus about fresh water shortage in this area, and these INGOS estimate may be 90 of villages will need fresh water in this area at the end of this month ” he added.
According to the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA), about 1,500 ponds - 13 percent of ponds in Yangon Division and 43 percent of ponds in the delta - were contaminated by sea water and debris.
Some of the INGOS have started salty water purification process in some village but villagers did not received like sphere standard.
“We get one gallon for each per day ,we understand that sources of village already gone and new sources is round about 2 hours drive by boat” one of the villager said.
In one month to dry season, many villagers are seeing water levels in their ponds dropping too fast.
INGOs and Myanmar Red Cross society are indentifying which villages at high risk water shortages to address problems in this township.
Among severely storm-ravaged townships in the delta, Labutta was at high risk of water shortages, with about two-thirds of the area at risk between March and April in 2009, while Bogale, Pyapon, and Dedaye townships were at moderate risk, according to a recent UNICEF assessment.