29 August
OVER 700 acres of fish farms have suffered losses to the tune of K280 million in Kayin and Mon states due to floods triggered by heavy rainfall in recent days, said U Win Kyaing, the general secretary of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation.
He made the remarks at the 15th regular meeting of fish-eries sector entrepreneurs, held on 27 August at the Myanmar Fisheries Federation in Yangon.
“This year, flooding has oc-curred in Kayin and Mon states in the southern region of Myan-mar. Some people have been adversely affected by the floods, while some have lost their lives in landslides. In the fisheries sector, a total of 703 acres of fish farms have witnessed flooding in Kayin State, with fish farm-ing losses estimated to exceed K250 million. Although Mon State experienced flooding, there are few fish farms in the state, with the result that there were fewer losses. Only 79 acres of fish farms were flooded in Mon State, with losses estimat-ed at K79.6 million,” said U Win Kyaing.
Fish farming ponds in Yangon, Ayeyawady, and Bago regions are also prone to flood-ing during heavy rainfall and extraordinarily high tides in Ayeyawady River. The Chind-win River also floods towns and villages along its banks when there is heavy rainfall. As the authorities have urged the peo-ple in these regions and states to take preventive measures for safety and reduction of dam-ages, now, local residents have suffered less and recovered from those situations, said U Win Kyaing.
“Now, those regions are safe. Next time, if those regions are flooded by heavy rains, dam-ages are expected to be less severe,” he added.
Earlier, floods occurred mostly in August. Now, that sit-uation has improved, and there are only occasional rainfalls and storms.
If there is any damage to fish farms in the regions and states due to flooding, the de-partment will supply fingerlings from state-owned hatching camps across the country, ac-cording to the Fisheries De-partment.
The department is mostly breeding rohu, barb, and mrigal fish. If fish farms are damaged by flooding, the department will supply fingerlings free-of-cost, after conducting a survey in cooperation with the related departments.
“The department will pro-vide one-and-a-half inch long fish. One acre of fish farms will be provided 3,000 fish. The de-partment will demand K8 per fish for 703 acres of fish farms. Fish farm owners said that they have lost fish worth nearly K130 million. The losses are calcu-lated by the fish size. But, the owners want calculations to be done based on the number of fish. In Kayin State, nearly K500 million worth of farms were damaged,” said Dr Aung Myint, the president of the Kayin State Fisheries Federation.
Floods have been worsen-ing in Myanmar since 2015. The scale of damage increased in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, only a few regions were flooded, and the damage to fish and prawns was lower.
In 2015, fish farms worth K34,720 from five regions and over 58,600 acres of prawn farms in Rakhine State were damaged. The farming losses were estimated at around K50 billion.
In 2018, a total of 1,044 acres of fish and prawn farms were damaged in Kungyangon town-ship and over 64 acres in Kawhu township of Yangon region, 1,291 acres in Bago township and 35 acres in Nyaunglebin township of Bago Region, and over 800 acres in Kayin State, according to the MFF.
By Aye Yamone
(Translated by Hay Mar)
