The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that initial reports indicated that hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland have been inundated. In the hardest-hit areas, urgent needs include basic food, drinking water, and sanitation.

The emergency compounds the dire situation across vast areas of Myanmar more than three years since a military coup that has led to escalating fighting, surging displacement and extreme protection threats.

Initially, WFP plans to assist some 35,000 people now sheltering in evacuation centres in Ayeyarwady. Food packs include rice and fortified biscuits, along with nutrition support for mothers and children, to prevent acute malnutrition.

Sheela Matthew, WFP Representative in Myanmar, warned that the flooding “threatens to significantly reduce monsoon rice yields” and will likely “jeopardize the food security of smallholder farmers”.

Vast challenges

She added that the impacts of the rising waters “are likely to be felt not just in Ayeyarwady but more broadly across Myanmar”, hence WFP’s response “to help mitigate potential food shortages”.

According to the Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024, even before the flooding, 1.5 million people in Ayeyarwady required humanitarian assistance – one in four of the population.

The UN aid office OCHA which issued the grim country assessment last December noted that than 18.6 million people were estimated to be in humanitarian need. “Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis with six million children in need as a result of displacement, interrupted healthcare and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, and protection risks including forced recruitment and mental distress,” it said.

Rare intervention

The WFP aid operation marks its first intervention in the delta in nine years; the UN agency last provided assistance in 2015 following widespread flooding.

It has also supported assistance so far to 130,000 people in flood-affected communities across Myanmar in Bago, Kachin, Kayin, Magway, Mandalay, and Sagaing. “WFP is assessing the needs in Rakhine and stands ready to respond,” it noted in a press release.

The UN agency’s flood response includes areas that have been affected by conflict, except for Ayeyarwady and parts of Bago, which are among the only few regions in Myanmar where there is no fighting.