Death Toll from Myanmar’s Severe Flooding Rises to 96

The official death toll from floods wreaking havoc across Myanmar has passed 100, state media reported Monday, as residents in low-lying regions were warned to brace for more floods and rivers swelled to unsafe levels.

Ooredoo Myanmar has offered support to those affected in the country’s 11 national disaster zones following severe seasonal flooding.

Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi reports from Minbya Township in Rakhine State, one of the worst affected areas.

The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said Friday that she had been denied permission to visit the state during her tour of the country last week.

The ministry of agriculture and irrigation has announced that all dams across the country will continue to be under watch, confirming that none had broken.

In recent days fears have grown for rising waters in the the more downstream areas of the Irrawaddy basin and its delta, two key agricultural areas close to the commercial hub Yangon.

But residents said they do not know when the next aid package will arrive. The one-and-a-half-month freeze is to ensure an adequate supply of rice for the domestic market and to maintain stability of rice.

The government’s appeal is in sharp contrast to Myanmar’s response after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, when the nation’s then-military rulers refused global aid and largely downplayed the destruction – though more than 100,000 people had been killed.

Floods, triggered by heavy rainfall since June, have severely affected Myanmar, destroying houses, farmland, railway lines, bridges and roads.

With the relief aid worth of 300,000 US dollars, a Chinese flood relief mission, led by Ambassador Hong Liang, has visited flood areas of Sagaing region and Rakhine state and will proceed to Magway Region on Friday.