This post presents the first page (the image on the left below) of an article on a recent flood in Sagaing Region taken from 7 Day News Journal, April 28, 2011. The section of the article in the image on the left is take from page 3. The section of the article in the image on the right is take from page 12.
Vocabulary:
ဆည် ။ to dam
လျှံ ။ to overflow; run over; (of rivers) be in spate
စိုက်ခင်း ။ field cultivated with crops or trees
လွှမ်း ။ to spread over, spread widely
ကြိုတင် ။ in advance
ဖြစ်စဉ် ။ the process of an event; record or account of what has happened
ယမား ။ torrential water coming down a mountain side, torrential stream
လှောင် ။ store up for future use
တမံ ။ dyke (dike); small dam
မချင့်မရဲ ။ beside oneself with frustration; with supressed feelings
အလို ။
ဒူးဆစ် ။ knee joint
ရုတ်တရက် ။ unexpectedly, all at once
စီးဆင်း ။ flow
နစ် ။ to sink, drown
အဝယ်ဒိုင် ။ a buying centre
သက်တမ်း ။ life span, life
နုန်း ။ silt
ချေး ။ excrement; faeces
နောက် ။ (of liquid) muddy, cloudy, not clear
မြေဆွေး ။ sphagnum, peat moss
Translation:
Farm fields were flooded because water was released so that a dam would not overflow during the hot season
Ah Man, Myo Min OoMonywa, April 10
Because water was released from a dam as a means of preventing in advance the overflow of water during the hot season, many acres of agricultural fields from over 40 villages in the area below the aforementioned dam were flooded with water and the crops that had been planted were destroyed, said villagers who personally experienced [the event].
On April 5th, civil servants who were taking responsibility at Myaut Yamah Dam (locally known as 'Chin Pit Dam') in Buleh Township, Sagaing Region, taking preventative measures in order that there would not be an overflow of the dam, released water from Myaut Yamah Dam's reservoir dyke and reduced the water level. Due to the aforementioned release of dam water, many agricultural lands on the left and right sides of the Yamah stream below the dam were flooded and many agricultural fields of garlic, onion, tomatoes, potatoes, beans and such crops were destroyed through flooding.
"Since the day that the dam water flooded [the fields] it has not rained. The crops on the left and right sides of the Yamah stream below the dam were all destroyed. The whole area that was flooded below the dam was up to about 30 miles of the Yamah stream," said a farmer [named] U San Yin from Sin Day village, which is among the destroyed onion and garlic agricultural fields.
"There is a lot of destruction and loss [of crops] due to the flooding. If it is all put together, [the cost of the destruction] would be 100,000,000 Kyat [approx. US $121,000], I think. The farmers will have to work whether or not they have [money]. Some [farmers] will borrow money and work," said U San Yin.
Because [the onions] in the onion fields were to be dug up and taken out after the New Year, [but] water entered and destroyed [the crops] during the days before they were dug up, the locals were frustrated. The farmers said that, just like the onion [fields], [the water in] other the agricultural fields was above [the height of] an adult knee joint, up to the thigh.
"The Myaut Yamah stream came flowing down unexpectedly, and since it was not yet harvest time, all of the onion, garlic and vegetable fields were drowned and destroyed. From April 4th to April 8th, in order to lower the water level in the stream, farmers descended into the water in order to take back as much [water] as could be got. In order to dig up the garlic fields, there were people immediately digging up the garlic from the water and selling it at the market for around 10 or 15 days. As for the onions and potatoes, when they drowned in the water they rotted," said Ko Min Min from Ywa Naung village, Buleh Township. Some of the farmers who planted that garlic, after the agricultural fields were flooded, were able to quickly dig up [the garlic] and spread them out in the sun and sell them at the market, and thereby reduce their loss," continued [Ko Min Min]. Afterwards, garlic buying centers came to know of that event and set up buying days for that region.
"[Our] ancestors worked [and] never once experienced this kind [of situation]," said a local man whose crops were destroyed, [saying that] during the whole life span of those farmers they never experienced the release of dam water and the flooding [of crops] during the hot season like now. During the hot season, on the left and right sides along the length of the stream below the dam in the aforementioned region, crops like onion, garlic, potatoes and beans are cultivated in the silt by inputting manure, peat moss and earth fertilisers.
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