Myanmar Engineering Society
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Regional characteristics and Disasters in Myanmar
Saw Htwe Zaw
Myanmar Earthquake Committee
Myanmar Engineering SocietyMyanmar Engineering Society
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MyanmarWith a population of about 60 million people andabundant natural resources, Myanmar is in the midst ofsweeping political and economic reforms that are earningit the title of Asia’s ‘last frontier market’.

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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 affectedby 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 theAyeyarwady delta region.
More than 80,000 people died, thousands of families were homeless andmany basic infrastructures were damaged due to this disaster.
Percentage of reported People affected bydisaster typeMyanmar Engineering Society
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CycloneMyanmar 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 windin tropical revolving storms.
The slope of the coastline is considered as one of theimportant 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 potentiallythreatened 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 criticalinfrastructure, economic loss and health related problems such as outbreak ofwater 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 andlandslides are frequent in upper reaches of the river systems, which are normallythe 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 thecountry.
Geomorphologically, Myanmar has two mountainous provinces: namely theWestern 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 resultof dense, unplanned and unregulated settlements that are constructed using
unsafe, or flammable material.
Fires are caused by a number of factors including: electricity misuse, electricalsurges, 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 throughthe 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 23May 1912.

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TsunamiMyanmar 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 somemajor historical earthquakes in the distant past, there had been atleast 16 large earthquakes with magnitude 7.0 within the territoryof Myanmar in the past 170 years.
There were also records of moderate Tsunami generated by twolarge magnitude earthquakes, which originated in the AndamanNicobar Islands.
Thus, it is evident that Myanmar is vulnerable to hazards frommoderate and large Tsunami along its long coastline.
In view of these, it is necessary to assess the earthquake andtsunami hazard potential along the Myanmar coastal urbanizedareas.

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Approaches to Natural Disasters inMyanmar
In the past, Myanmar had been relatively safe from natural disasters.
Its buildings, life style and live environments well synchronized tominimize the risks of natural disaster.
Even in the 2004 Tsunami event, Myanmar was not effected much likethe neighboring countries in the region, only 71 casualties werereported in Myanmar compared to more than 8000 in Thailand.
However, in 2008 May, Myanmar was hit by “Nargis” cyclone whichbrings the biggest losses in term of natural disaster in its recent history.
According to ICRC report, 84,500 people were killed and 53,800 wentmissing.
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 representationfrom 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 3weeks after the cyclone struck.
However, during this period, waves of local volunteers and aids from all over thecountry 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 aspecial committee and task force in order to be able to act promptly andeffectively 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) andThabeikkyin earthquake (hit in northern part of the central Ayeyarwaddy rivervalley 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 weretotal 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 amagnitude of 6.8 on the moment magnitude scale.
The epicenter was near the town of Male, 52 km NNE of thecity of Shwebo, 64 km west of Mogok and 120 km north ofMandalay.
Up to 26 people dead and many more injured. Part of abridge 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 strengthand efforts and recommendations
Since, the new Government has been formed in 2010 under the 2008 Constitution andthe government encourage Disaster Management Efforts to be done forcefully with fullcapacities.
For Disaster Risk Reduction as a National Priority, Myanmar endorsed Hyogo
Framework for Action (HFA) which is the outcome Disaster Reduction Guideline for thenext decades and participated by nearly 4000 delegates from 168 countries.
Moreover, Myanmar had adopted ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management andEmergency Respond (AADMER) in July 2005.
In order to implement HFA and AADMER, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief andResettlement, 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 strengthand efforts and recommendations
Awareness and public education programs, Trainees of Trainers (TOTs),
Disaster Management Courses for Local Government Officials andCommunity 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 toreduce 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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Disaster risk reduction and prevention strengthand efforts and recommendations
Myanmar Engineering Society (MES) is working closely with thegovernment on DRR policy issues, management, training andstudies.
One of the core partner of MES, SEEDS (Asia) has been working for
DRR training and awareness programs through out the country since2008.
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 recentlyand distributed to the public and government bodies for provisionaluse.

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Disaster risk reduction and prevention strengthand efforts and recommendations
Since Myanmar has been isolated for many years, thetechnical knowledge and human resources are in need tocatch 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 donein Myanmar.