- Myanmar’s central Dry Zone covers more than 75,000 km2, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Ireland. Its 10 million people include many of the country’s poorest. Agriculture, primarily rainfed, is the predominant livelihood among the rural population. However, farmers face challenging conditions, as the Dry Zone is the most water-stressed part of the country. Seasonal water scarcity is very common. Dry spells, droughts, early retreat of the monsoon, flooding and cyclones
have all had an impact on farming in the Dry Zone in recent years.
To identify how food security and livelihoods might be improved
across the Dry Zone, IWMI, together with National Engineering and
Planning Services (NEPS) and Myanmar Marketing Research and
Development (MMRD) Research Services, conducted a rapid
assessment of water use. This involved: assessing surface water and
groundwater resources; considering availability, uses, patterns, trends
and variability; a community-level survey, exploring water availability,
access and management for people of different livelihoods; and
analysis of current irrigation.
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The findings and recommendations from this assessment were
presented in the report Improving water management in Myanmar’s
Dry Zone for food security, livelihoods and health. Some of the main
messages to emerge from the assessment are that managing water
variability is key to improving livelihoods in the Dry Zone; groundwater
is a critical but limited resource; farmers are increasingly pumping
water from surface and subsurface sources to try and overcome the
vagaries of rainfall and shortfalls in existing formal irrigation schemes;
and supporting small-scale agriculture is essential.
- With Myanmar opening up at an unprecedented rate, government
agencies need evidence-based research to help them make important decisions regarding national strategies of donor investments. This new report is already attracting interest and will provide a firm foundation for future research in the country.
