In Mandalay, a US$2m dream

In Mandalay, a US$2m dream

By Phyo Wai Kyaw   |   Monday, 01 July 2013

 

I was surprised and shocked when I saw the dramatic opening scene of Slumdog Millionaire, where the young lead jumps into an open latrine in a slum in Mumbai in order to meet his hero.

Daw Thaung Ye cooks a meal at her home in Chan Mya Tharsi's Myayi Nandar ward in Mandalay last month. (Phyo Wai Kyaw/The Myanmar Times)

However, those same feelings of shock arose again recently – along with a heightened sense of smell – when I visited a large slum in Mandalay's Myayi Nandar ward, on the eastern edge of Chan Mya Tharsi township.

And just like the star of Slumdog Millionaire, the inhabitants of the Myayi Nandar slum are also in desperate need of a large cash prize – in this case a US$2 million infrastructure investment from the Asian Development Bank – to boost their living standards.

The slum's residents live in bamboo thatch dwellings barely 300 square feet in size, sometimes with four families crammed under each roof and open latrines invariably close by – sometimes only 5 feet away. These latrines are beside the cooking areas and only a few of the better homes have small drains that operate as makeshift baths.

Daw Byar Sein, a 62-year-old slum resident, said most of the people in Myayi Nandar have one main aim – fixing the toilets.

"I want to repair just the latrine and don't have hope for much else," she said on June 17. "We have planned for a long time to fix the toilet but the years pass by and we get older. We never have enough money to get the work done.

"My husband recently suffered a stroke and was paralysed but we don't have anywhere else to live. We just keep hoping that one day we'll be able to fix the toilets."

Daw Byar Sein said she used to recycle bottles, paper and cardboard but no longer works. She lives with 13 relatives under the one roof. The last time a new latrine was dug by the family was when Daw Byar Sein first moved in 20 years ago.

It is this level of poverty that has prompted ADB and Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC) to study the area as part of a US$2-million integrated development project that aims to improve living conditions in the area. MCDC has made three visits to the slum since February, residents said.

"They came to visit our houses one by one and looked at the latrines, which are all full and overflowing," resident U Win Naing said on June 17.

"They also took photos and water samples from our wells. We are so glad they came and hope they will support us by fixing the drains, water supply and latrines," he said. "However, we also hope they move quickly because nothing has happened yet."

Ward administrator U Khin Maung Nyo said he was told that conditions in the ward were worse than slums in the Philippines.

"I have learned that the support could start being provided this month, which will help the people living here," he said.

Senior MCDC official U Htun Kyi said on June 12 that he hoped that the ADB assistance would extend to providing financial support to slum dwellers, as well as fixing the toilets and water supply.

MCDC figures show there are about 2400 residents living in 500 huts in the slum and most are casual labourers. The area was settled in the early 1990s as a place for people who previously lived on the streets.

U Win Naing said the first batch of residents were forcibly moved to the area – then empty fields – and told to build homes. He said disease and sickness stalk residents: In the past three years two people have been killed by cholera, while dengue haemorrhagic fever used to be a common problem.

"We are all hoping to get some support and I don't want to see this hope dashed. And if we get new toilets ... Well, I think we'll all feel like actors who have won an Academy Award."

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/07/05/in-mandalay-a-us2m-dream/