Heavy rain has caused massive amounts of water to run-off from higher land and flooded lower-lying areas of Nyaungshwe Township destroying many acres of rice fields.

According to residents the runoff was caused by heavy rainfall from 11 to 13 June 2025 and it flooded low lying areas and rice fields, according to residents of the township. 

A Nyaungshwe Township resident told Shan Herald that many acres of rice fields, particularly in the northern and western parts of the township, were flooded and destroyed.

He said on 16 June: “The heavy rains caused a lot of runoff, and it ended up flooding many rice fields. We still don’t know the exact cost of the damage, but thousands of acres were affected. In the north and west of Nyaungshwe especially, a lot of the fields were destroyed. Even now, many are still underwater.”

As of 16 June, the low-lying wards of Kanthar and Thazi in Nyaungshwe Town remained submerged with some residents of those wards sheltering in the town’s Myasaeti Monastery.

Nyaungshwe Township includes Inle Lake. Recently the area has been badly hit by natural disasters.

In September 2024 torrential rain led to flash floods that affected over a third of the villages around the lake.

Then, Nyaungshwe Township was one of the areas hardest hit by the 28 March 2025 magnitude 7.7 earthquake. Many of the houses around Inle Lake, which are on stilts were destroyed. Many people suffered hardship as aid was slow to reach the area. Rebuilding houses has also been taking longer due to the extent of the damage and a shortage of building materials and carpenters.

This series of natural disasters has devastated agricultural production which has weakened the local economy and made rebuilding even more of a challenge.