Rain Comes to Arakan with Cyclone Laila

Sittwe: Rain has come to Arakan State at last, particularly the Sittwe area, along with Cyclone Laila, but the worst of the storm bypassed Arakan and hit Chennai, India, with maximum wind speeds of about 80 kilometers per hour.

"We heard a deep depression over the nearby areas of the Bay of Bengal had intensified in a cyclone, Laila, but the cyclone has now moved to India. Now rain has come to our town after the cyclone bypassed our state. We are happy because the temperature has dropped and our water supply is no longer scarce," said one young man from Sittwe.

Many townspeople in Sittwe came out into the streets to bath in the rain in order to cool off.

"People wanted rain, at that time the rain came. So we are happy. If there was no rain until now we would be unable to survive because we couldn't sleep at night with the hot temperatures and we had insufficient water in our town," the man said.

In Sittwe, the capital of Arakan, the authority supplies three hours of electricity per night. During that time, people can stay inside their homes with fans. After the electricity has gone out, people come outside of their homes to get fresh air.

"The temperature is very high this summer, so many ponds and wells have dried up in Sittwe. So the authority could not supply water from the Kandaw Gyi reservoir because it had already dried up," he said.

People in Sittwe had been suffering from a shortage of water and high temperatures for several weeks, and were eagerly awaiting the rain.

The rain started in Sittwe in the evening of May 18 and it also rained in the city yesterday.

However, some townships in Arakan, including Mrauk U, Kyauktaw, and Buthidaung are still waiting for rain and continue to suffer from the hot weather and low water supply.
www.narinjara.com