Residents of a flood-prone village in Waingmaw Township are waiting for materials to rebuild their houses damaged by Cyclone Mocha as the rainy season looms in Kachin State.
“The wind and rain will come once the wet season starts and we want to rebuild our house before this happens,” camp leader of Tsin Kyeing internally displaced person (IDP) camp told KNG. “It’s really difficult to live under our damaged roof. The tarpaulin and galvanised iron sheets are all gone.”
In mid-May, the cyclone destroyed 80 buildings, including huts, schools and meeting halls in the camp located about 70 miles from Myitkyina.
The Kachin Baptist Convention has promised to help, but nothing has arrived yet.
“We’re still accessing the damage caused by the cyclone in the camp and collecting information and other data on what the IDPs need,” an anonymous official from its humanitarian development department told KNG, expecting to provide assistance within a month.
The camp that’s frequently flooded during the rainy season is home to about 1,100 people living in over 200 houses. To make ends meet, residents do daily work outside the camp. In 2011, they fled their villages Sadung, Bum Tawng and Kazu after fighting broke out between the Kachin Independence Army and the military.
