Heavy flooding in Myanmar displaces more than 10,000

Flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Myanmar's southern areas has displaced more than 10,000 people and disrupted traffic on the railway lines that connect the country's biggest cities, officials say.

A senior official at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, said constant rainfall in the Bago region, which began last week, has caused flooding in the low-lying areas of its capital, Bago township.

She said no casualties have been reported so far, but more than 10,000 people have had to abandon their homes.

Bago township recorded 200mm of rain, its highest level in 59 years, Myanmar's Meteorological Department said on Sunday.

Rain or thunderstorms were forecast for across the country until Monday evening.

One of the leaders of an emergency rescue team in Bago told the Associated Press that the flooding was at least 240cm deep in low-lying areas.

"Almost the whole area of the town was flooded," That Zin Maung, chairman of the Mizzima Thukha Charity Foundation, said on Monday.

"It is the third flood in the town this year and the worst in many years. All the monasteries in the town have opened relief camps. Charity organisations are evacuating people from low-lying areas as much as they can."

A 55-year-old resident of Bago's Pan Hlaing ward said the floodwater was 182cm deep in her neighbourhood, and her family members were living on the second and third floors of their house.

The woman said the water was still rising steadily in her neighbourhood, which has never flooded badly before.

Social Welfare Ministry official Lay Shwe Zin Oo said people are sheltering in 32 relief camps, schools and Buddhist monasteries in Bago, while the authorities are providing food, drinking water and other essential assistance.

Reports in the state-run Myanmar Alinn newspaper said trains that departed from Mandalay, the country's second-largest city in central Myanmar, and from southern Mawlamyine township were halted en route.

Scheduled departures from Yangon, the biggest city in the country, were cancelled after railway lines were flooded by the rapid flow of water from mountain torrents and the spillage from dams in the Bago region.

Myanmar Alinn also said some neighbourhoods in Kyaikto township in southern Mon state were flooded by water from mountain torrents, and 555 people there were taking shelter in three relief camps on Sunday.