Villagers have died and others are missing due to flash floods that hit two villages in Theinkone Village Tract, in Pindaya Township, southern Shan State on 28 July 2025.
At around 3:00 am, torrents of water ran off the mountain and swept through the villages of Konesaung and Onget, causing deadly flash floods.
Houses in the path of the torrents coming off the mountains were swept away, which resulted in eight deaths and two missing people, according to sources from the two villages.
A woman from Theinkone Village, also in Theinkone Village Tract, said that locals had never seen flooding like this before.
She said to Shan Herald: “The mountain torrents hit while everyone was fast asleep. There are still some people missing in Konesaung who haven’t been found yet. So far, eight people have died, and two are still missing. It’s been really terrifying, and we’ve never gone through anything like this before. Even the rice fields were completely destroyed. There’s nothing left.”
A small stream near Konesaung Village, that is normally dry and does not even have much water flowing in it when it rains, was a raging torrent on 28 July.
Of the roughly 80 households in Konesaung Village, about 50 are currently taking shelter at a monastery in the village and a monastery in Theinkone Village. They are in urgent need of food and accommodation.
The aforementioned woman from Theinkone Village said: “We’ve mainly been feeding the people taking shelter in our village’s monastery with dried noodles and eggs that were donated earlier. The monastery in Konesaung also needs food for the people staying there. We believe there have been casualties in Onget Village too. And, since the flash floods communication has been disrupted as well.”
In Pindaya Town landslides and floods hit the Shwe Oo Min Pagoda and damaged several shops in the pagoda compound. A bridge on the Pindaya Town to Lawksawk (Yatsauk) Town Road in Pindaya Township has also collapsed as a result of the flooding.
A young woman from Pindaya Town said: “The bridge over the Zawgyi Stream was broken by the flood. Currently, people are using an alternative route to Yatsauk Town [in Shan State’s Yatsauk Township]. The flooding has also caused extensive damage to rice fields. The extent of the damage is not known, but it is staggering.”
She added that landslides have also destroyed and blocked other sections of road in Pindaya Township, which has forced locals to travel on foot in certain areas.
Similarly, parts of the road connecting the towns of Ywangan and Aungpan in southern Shan State are water-damaged which has stopped travellers from reaching their destinations and forced them to turn back and return to where they came from, according to a resident of Ywangan Town in Ywangan Township.
He said to Shan Herald: “There were floods last year too, but the roads weren’t this badly damaged. This year, Konegyi Village in the Myinkadoe Village Tract (in Ywangan Township) also got hit hard by flooding. A lot of rice fields were destroyed, and we’ve suffered quite a lot of losses this time.”
Flooding is currently affecting the Shan State townships of Kalaw, Aungpan, Nyaungshwe, Yatsauk, Pindaya and Ywanga and the area around Inle Lake, also in Shan State.
