The World Bank will provide Myanmar with $200 million that will help the country recover from the widespread flooding that occurred last year. The loan will primarily assist in reconstructing the roads and livelihoods of residents living in the affected areas. The financing comes as part of a World Bank project called the Flood and Landslide Emergency Recovery Project (FLERP) intended for Myanmar. Specifically, it will go toward road reconstruction and the restoration of the agricultural and fishery sectors in the most devastated communities of Ayeyarwady, Sagaing, Magway, Bago and Yangon regions and Chin and Rakhine states.
The World Bank’s support to rehabilitate roads is critical in getting people back to markets and schools, said Tin Moe Myint, Director of the Department of Rural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. She added that under this project they will have a chance to execute measures to heighten climate resilience of the roads so that they are not washed away when encounter another disaster. The transport sector approved to be worst-hit by the last year’s catastrophe, resulting in nearly 50% damages in the public transportation segment, according to the World Bank’s statement.
The FLERP will purchase and provide critical machinery and equipment, production inputs and other requirements to help reinstall the farming industry, addressing the urgent needs of farmers and fishermen to get back to their normal living and to safeguard against vulnerability from future disasters.
Last year’s calamity was a major blow for the people of Myanmar, where 70% of the population is rural and around 6o percent of the labour force is agricultural, leaving thousands of individuals and families in losing regular income sources. Around 130 deaths resulted from the disaster and over 1.6 million residents were displaced.