Many village water ponds in Myanmar dry up due to summer heat

May 5, 2010 8:16 pm

YANGON, May 5 — Drinking water ponds in many villages in Myanmar have dried up due to excessively high weather temperature during the current summer season, according to local sources on Wednesday.

Because of lying near the sea, the villages normally get salt- water.

As an alternative, the villagers are digging up some tube-wells near the dry ponds, the sources said.

Meanwhile, thousands of fishes, bred in ponds in the country's southwestern Ayeyawaddy division, died of heat stress daily, according to local fish breeders.

The phenomena is the worst in the last two decades, they said.

There were even some cases that all 100,000 fishes died in a single day in Twantay township, Yangon division, fish breeders in the township said, fearing that such cases would continue as long as there is no rainfall.

The month of April falls within the summer which lasts from March to the end of May in Myanmar.

The day temperatures in central Myanmar this summer have reached a record high in over four decades, peaking at between 43 and 45 degree Celsius in such regions as Minbu, Magway, Mandalay, Monywa, Chauk and Mingyan as well as in Yangon over the past week, which are 5 to 6 degree Celsius above April average temperature.

April represents the hottest month of Myanmar and this year it is experiencing excessive heat.

(PNA/Xinhua)