Governmental disaster response and river infrastructure function in the 2015 Myanmar flood: An investigation in the Bago River Basin

Abstract

In July and August in 2015, the massive flood has occurred and caused extensive and severe damages throughout Myanmar. We investigated disaster response by Myanmar government as well as the river infrastructure function in the Bago River Basin. As a result, we observed that the Government of Myanmar promoted actions of disaster risk reduction through Emergency Operation Centre based on the National Natural Disaster Management Law enacted in 2013. Moreover, disaster response system that had not been seen before was under formulation at local level, such as information sharing among departments and information provision to the public. Especially in the Bago River Basin where the great flood had struck in 2011, countermeasures for flood risk reduction including a large-scale river improvement were being taken from both structural and non-structural measures.