A monk walks past damaged houses in Mandalay on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar. Photo: AFP / SAI AUNG MAIN
The shortage of clean water is one of the biggest challenges following the major earthquake that killed more than 1600 people in Myanmar, and at least 17 in Thailand, say World Vision staff in Myanmar.
The initial 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon (local time), and was followed by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock.
Myanmar's ruling military regime Junta said in a statement on Saturday that at least 1644 people were killed and more than 3400 injured in the country, with at least 139 more missing.
World Vision Myanmar senior response and operations director Edward Zan, who is based in Yangon, said his colleagues in Mandalay have been relaying back information and photos from the disaster struck region.
"Some of them, they cannot continue staying in their house, they have to be outside their house, there's no water container, there's no proper water supply, they're in need of drinking water and bottled water," he said.
Zan said the high temperatures in Myanmar meant the need for water was even stronger.
He said World Vision staff had been providing water and food aid to affected people.
Zan said their organisation ran long-term projects in Myanmar, including mental health and psychosocial support to children and families, but it did not have capacity for doing search and rescue.
Zan said his teams were doing what they can to provide immediate assistance, and were also planning to do rapid assessments of the damage and impact in Mandalay.
He said shelters were starting to get set up for displaced people in Mandalay.
"Initially they don't have any place to stay, they have to just stay on the road, but today we started to see all the temporary shelters have been setting up, and people are staying under the shelter," he said.
Zan said power and telecommunications continued to be disrupted, and in Yangon they were still experiencing intermittent power - having power for four hours on, and four hours off.
He said the communication with staff in the disaster zone in Mandalay was delayed due to the disruptions.
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