One of the poorest areas in Myanmar is Set Yong Su in the Sittwe region. Its 20,000 residents, mostly belonging to the Muslim minority, have serious difficulties in acquiring education and in civil registration. Diseases spread easily in this shantytown as families live in small and cramped huts without any access to water or sanitation, without roads and with alleys full of mud and garbage.

Hence Malteser International, the only organization active in the area, has been working for several weeks to provide access to safe drinking water and to improve overall hygiene conditions, at least in some of the more populous areas.

With the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, public water points, wells and ponds have been rehabilitated and “water user groups” have been set up to ensure a sustainable management of the facilities. Members of the Order of Malta’s International Relief Corps have worked with the communities to dig and line with bamboo two drainage systems to prevent flooding during the rainy season.