Myanmar Engineering Society
100th Anniversary Celebration- International Program
Regional characteristics and Disasters in Myanmar
Saw Htwe Zaw
Myanmar Earthquake Committee
Myanmar Engineering Society
Myanmar Engineering Society
100th Anniversary Celebration- International Program
Myanmar
With a population of about 60 million people and
abundant natural resources, Myanmar is in the midst of
sweeping political and economic reforms that are earning
it the title of Asia’s ‘last frontier market’.
Myanmar Engineering Society
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Regional Characteristics
Myanmar is a country exposed to a number of hazards such as floods,
cyclones, storm surge, earthquakes, landslides, fires, and tsunamis.
Over the decades, Myanmar has experienced a number of cyclones, floods,
earthquakes, and landslides.
Major parts of the country specially the coastal region are mostly affected
by the hazards.
Natural Disasters from 1980 to 2010
The most devastating recent hazard event, cyclone Nargis, hit the country
in 2008 and did a significant damage to the lives and properties in the
Ayeyarwady delta region.
More than 80,000 people died, thousands of families were homeless and
many basic infrastructures were damaged due to this disaster.
Percentage of reported People affected by
disaster type
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Cyclone
Myanmar is prone to impacts of cyclones.
The months of April, May and October to December are considered to be cyclone months
according to historical records.
In the last four decades alone, several major cyclones severely affected Myanmar, notably 2008
Nargis cyclone
significant less than at the luvsides.
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Storm Surge
Storm surge is extraordinary flooding due to a storm.
It generally occurs due to waves generated by the strong wind
in tropical revolving storms.
The slope of the coastline is considered as one of the
important factors controlling the intensity of storm surge.
Myanmar, borders with the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman
Sea, with its 2400 km long coastline are potentially
threatened by the waves, cyclones and associated weather.
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Flood
Floods in the past, led to loss of lives and properties, damage to critical
infrastructure, economic loss and health related problems such as outbreak of
water borne diseases when lakes, ponds and reservoirs get contaminated.
Myanmar receives practically all its rainfall between mid-May and October,
during which flooding is common.
The riverine floods are common in the river delta while the flash floods and
landslides are frequent in upper reaches of the river systems, which are normally
the mountainous areas.
In the cities and towns, localized floods occur from time to time.
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Landslide
Myanmar has experienced many types of geologic hazards including earthquakes,
landslides and subsidence in karst area.
Among these, earthquakes and landslides are major hazards affecting the
country.
Geomorphologically, Myanmar has two mountainous provinces: namely the
Western Ranges and the Eastern Highland.
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Wild Fire
Although Myanmar is faced with forest fires throughout much of the country,
this occurs in rural areas.
Within urban areas of the country, fire is still a major hazard, mainly as a result
of dense, unplanned and unregulated settlements that are constructed using
unsafe, or flammable material.
Fires are caused by a number of factors including: electricity misuse, electrical
surges, and poorly managed wood fires and mosquito coils.
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Earthquake
Myanmar rests on one of the world's two main earthquake belts, with
one of its many fault lines running 1,000km north to south through
the country's agriculturally rich central plain, placing major Burmese
cities, including Mandalay, Bago and Yangon, at risk.
During the 20th Century alone, at least 18 large earthquakes had
happened along the Central Lowland region where the well-known
Sagaing Fault passing through.
The largest measured earthquake in Myanmar is a magnitude 8.0
event, which occurred on the northern segment of this fault on 23
May 1912.
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Tsunami
Myanmar indeed is earthquake-prone as it lies in one of the two
principal earthquake belts of the world-the Alpide Belt.
The historical and seismic records show that in addition to some
major historical earthquakes in the distant past, there had been at
least 16 large earthquakes with magnitude 7.0 within the territory
of Myanmar in the past 170 years.
There were also records of moderate Tsunami generated by two
large magnitude earthquakes, which originated in the AndamanNicobar Islands.
Thus, it is evident that Myanmar is vulnerable to hazards from
moderate and large Tsunami along its long coastline.
In view of these, it is necessary to assess the earthquake and
tsunami hazard potential along the Myanmar coastal urbanized
areas.
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Approaches to Natural Disasters in
Myanmar
In the past, Myanmar had been relatively safe from natural disasters.
Its buildings, life style and live environments well synchronized to
minimize the risks of natural disaster.
Even in the 2004 Tsunami event, Myanmar was not effected much like
the neighboring countries in the region, only 71 casualties were
reported in Myanmar compared to more than 8000 in Thailand.
However, in 2008 May, Myanmar was hit by “Nargis” cyclone which
brings the biggest losses in term of natural disaster in its recent history.
According to ICRC report, 84,500 people were killed and 53,800 went
missing.
A total of 37 townships were significantly affected by the cyclone.
The UN estimates that as many as 2.4 million people were affected.
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Response in Nargis
Initially the response of the government was appalling.
A full 6 days after the storm made landfall, the Myanmar government representation
from the United States formally asked the United Nations (UN) for help.
On 19 May, Myanmar granted members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations
admittance into the country to deliver aid.
On 23 May that other international aid workers would be let into the country - a full 3
weeks after the cyclone struck.
However, during this period, waves of local volunteers and aids from all over the
country gave hands for from drinking water to food and shelters.
Based on monasteries and churches, community networks and local NGOs were set up
to assist the disaster effected areas and they became key partners when international
aids came in.
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Preparedness after Nargis
After learning bitter experiences from Nagis event, the government setup a
special committee and task force in order to be able to act promptly and
effectively at the time of future disaster events.
The necessary legal frameworks and technical frameworks such as Myanmar
Disaster Management Law and Myanmar National Building Code have been
prepared and instated.
The improvements were clearly visible in the rescue and rehabilitation efforts
for Tarlay earthquake (hit in eastern Shan state in the year 2011) and
Thabeikkyin earthquake (hit in northern part of the central Ayeyarwaddy river
valley in the year 2012) where information, decisions and actions were prompt,
actuate and effective.
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Tarlay Earthquake
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck eastern Myanmar at
Tarlay, near the golden triangle area, bordering between
Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, at a depth of 10 km, at 20:25
local time (13:55 UTC) on Thursday, March 24th, 2011.
The official number of casualties currently stands at 75
deaths and 110 injuries.
About 986 houses were damaged. Among them 333 were
total collapsed.
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Shwebo Earthquake
The 2012 Shwebo earthquake occurred at 07:42 local time
(01:12 UTC) on 11 November in Myanmar. It had a
magnitude of 6.8 on the moment magnitude scale.
The epicenter was near the town of Male, 52 km NNE of the
city of Shwebo, 64 km west of Mogok and 120 km north of
Mandalay.
Up to 26 people dead and many more injured. Part of a
bridge under construction fell into the Irrawaddy River near
Shwebo and some gold mine collapsed at Sintku.
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Disaster risk reduction and prevention strength
and efforts and recommendations
Since, the new Government has been formed in 2010 under the 2008 Constitution and
the government encourage Disaster Management Efforts to be done forcefully with full
capacities.
For Disaster Risk Reduction as a National Priority, Myanmar endorsed Hyogo
Framework for Action (HFA) which is the outcome Disaster Reduction Guideline for the
next decades and participated by nearly 4000 delegates from 168 countries.
Moreover, Myanmar had adopted ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and
Emergency Respond (AADMER) in July 2005.
In order to implement HFA and AADMER, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and
Resettlement, the focal Ministry for Disaster Management in Myanmar, developed
Myanmar Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction (MAPDRR) 2009-2015 through a
consultative and partnership approach.
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Disaster risk reduction and prevention strength
and efforts and recommendations
Awareness and public education programs, Trainees of Trainers (TOTs),
Disaster Management Courses for Local Government Officials and
Community members and the Interdepartmental Capacity Building Programs
are being conducted.
The government is seeking for more investment in DRR, such as
preparedness and preventions at the grassroots level of the communities to
reduce the expenditure of the recovery Sectors working closely with UN
agencies and the all International Organizations such as UNDP, UNISDR,
UNOCHA, Action Aid, UN-HABITAT, IRC, ADPC, ADRC etc.
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100th Anniversary Celebration- International Program
Disaster risk reduction and prevention strength
and efforts and recommendations
Myanmar Engineering Society (MES) is working closely with the
government on DRR policy issues, management, training and
studies.
One of the core partner of MES, SEEDS (Asia) has been working for
DRR training and awareness programs through out the country since
2008.
Together with different international agencies, MES is conducting
research studies such as “Disaster Risk Reduction & Urban Land Use
Planning for Mandalay City”, “Seismic Hazard and Risk AssessmentBago, Taungoo and Sagaing”.
MES has also prepared Myanmar National Building Code recently
and distributed to the public and government bodies for provisional
use.
Myanmar Engineering Society
100th Anniversary Celebration- International Program
Disaster risk reduction and prevention strength
and efforts and recommendations
Since Myanmar has been isolated for many years, the
technical knowledge and human resources are in need to
catch up with the developments in the region.
One of the key issues in Myanmar is scarcity of reasonably
reliable baseline data.
Therefore, more international researches, collaborations
projects and studies on disaster risk reduction shall be done
in Myanmar.