Internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering in Tanintharyi Region’s Tanintharyi Township have been experiencing drinking water shortages since mid-March 2025, according to aid workers helping them.
The coastal areas of Tanintharyi Township typically experience freshwater shortages at this time of year during the hot season.
Normally, IDPs sheltering in hilly areas of the township rely primarily on natural streams and sinkholes for water. However, with the current high temperatures continuing to rise the availability of water from these sources is dwindling, making life increasingly hard for the IDPs.
An aid worker said to KIC: “The summer heat has become unbearable. In some areas, the streams have completely dried up. Right now, the IDPs living in the coastal and hill areas are suffering the most from the scarcity of freshwater.”
Currently, there are around 60,000 IDPs sheltering in Tanintharyi Township. It is the township with the highest number of IDPs in Tanintaryi Region. Many of the IDPs there have fled conflict in other parts of Tanintharyi Township.
The junta has restricted the transport of goods into Tanintharyi Township which has caused a severe shortage of medicine and other essential goods. The restrictions have caused hardships to the IDPs sheltering there that have been exacerbated by the recent water shortages.
An Aid worker said: “It was already tough to buy food and medicine in the township, and now finding clean drinking water has become another huge problem. Bottled water is hard to get, and the prices of goods have shot up. The hardships just keep piling on from every direction.”
