Running Low on Basic Necessities of Life

By U AC

Clean water and clean air are the necessities of human life. And we are not talking about the lack of the former in some villages in the faraway border areas of Myanmar. Nor are we talking about the shortage of drinking water in the hyper-dry region in the central valley of the country. Yet right in the suburb of Yan­gon, in one of the most densely populated townships in the in­dustrial heartland of the capital, the residents there are having to contend with the need to buy drinkable water every day!

Hey, we are talking about Hlinethaya (East) Township with an area of 31 square kilo­metres. Based on 2023 stats, the township has an estimated pop­ulation of 300,000+, occupying 14 administrative wards. It is undoubtedly the industrial cap­ital not only of Yangon, but also of Myanmar, housing 800 fac­tories and 500 home-operated industries. Most of the residents there are migrant workers from outside the township. Yet with the unemployment rate running at 15 per cent, Hlinethaya is one of the least developed areas in Yangon suburbs. With a per capita GDP of US$1,000 in the township, most of the residents can be classified as poor, sur­viving on meagre daily wages or monthly salaries.

Water, water everywhere

Once the first round of heavy rains started to fall onto the flatlands of Hlinethaya, the flooding began. Lack of sufficient and proper rubbish disposal facilities has caused blocked drains, and the rainwa­ter simply has no way out other than seeping underground via a few grass-covered areas. With a population density of 9,700 people per square kilometre, Hlinethaya is more densely pop­ulated than Singapore or Tokyo; flash floods now happen more frequently than local drainage systems can handle, turning streets into rivers in minutes. The township would sudden­ly get calf-height inundation if the incessant rains continue for more than a couple of hours. A shoutout to the successive local governments for successfully turning our streets into premi­um, eco-friendly waterparks.

Yet in the middle of the Yangon region, where the poor can have an unprompted indoor swimming pool, and develop­ers can advertise their flats as ‘beachfront’ properties (without having to go to Chaungtha or Ngwehsaung), there is certain­ly no clean water availability on tap. The centralized water supply, aka Joe Phyu water, only reaches the Nawaday estate in Ward 6 of the township. The rest have to rely on underground water full of excessive minerals of the dangerous kinds such as iron, mercury and salt. But the would-be Bill Gates and Elon Musk are capitalizing on this misery and profiting from the despair by setting up clean water stations and selling supposedly purified water to the underprivileged at around K2,000 per five-gallon plastic containers. No government department or organizations is verifying the actual quality of the water being sold. Just a perfect environment for vulture entrepreneurs to benefit from disaster capitalism.

But for the families caught in a cycle of immediate survival, having no budget to buy clean water on some days for their children can be devastating for the health of the children. For day-to-day earners, who are already living hand-to-mouth and cannot afford to lose a sin­gle day of work, they may, on some days, end up asking or having to ask their children to drink the polluted water. What would have been the impact on the child’s mental and physical development? How much would it contribute to the lower life ex­pectancy of future generations? No one knows. The impact of subsistence living at its worst!

Barking up the wrong tree

Since 2010, at the start of the democratic system of gov­ernment for Myanmar, every MP, politician and government official has come around Hline­thaya and toured the neighbour­hood and given a normal gov­ernment response, built on a strict ratio of 20 per cent press release and 80 per cent disap­pearing act. Even Daw Suu Kyi joined with Angelina Jolie to visit squatters in Hlinethaya, to do exactly that!

And instead of addressing the basic issue of human decen­cy, they focus on roads, bridges, creating optics on superficial cleanups, conveniently forget­ting the issue of clean water access. Our leaders are treating the clean water crisis like an unread email: if they ignore it long enough, maybe it’ll just go away.

Regular electricity is not ex­pected in the near future; With 52 out of 250 transformers in the township in usage overload, and the government budget only al­locating five in this financial year, the demand cannot be met in the foreseeable future. Road laying and street building are admirable, but without accom­panying drainage cleanup, the high roads will only lead to more flood water pooling around the houses and sheds.

Yet, the most critical of all, availability of clean drinking water is completely passed over. Joe Phyu’s access will not be forthcoming in the next decade. Hence, we need water filtration systems and clean water access stations in the township. Access to this public good cannot be left to private enterprises (current­ly without any supervision).

Maybe the people in Hline­thaya are all waiting. Waiting for a Hero (Just like in Mariah Carey’s song) to come along, with the strength to carry on - the herculean task of provid­ing clean water for the whole neighbourhood. He, with a few other good men, has to make this happen, to set an example for the whole nation, while ac­cumulating merits for their next lives at the same time.