Railroads, bridges damaged by collapsed Swa Creek Dam under repair, Tatmadaw vehicles transport travellers

Railroads, bridges damaged by collapsed Swa Creek Dam under repair, Tatmadaw vehicles transport travellers

The spillway of Swa Creek Dam in Swa,Yadeshe Township, Bago Region, broke up making a crack of about 360 feet at about 5.45 am on 29 August 2018 and flooding 85 villages in 18 village-tracts of Yadeshe
Township. Since then, Tatmadawmen from the local battalion of Southern Command,members of Myanmar Police Force, Red Cross Society and social aid organizations and departmental staff have been carrying out relief and rescue tasks.

Due to the damaged Swa Creek Dam, a 3,300 feet long section between telegram mile post Nos. 189/10 and 190/1 on Yangon-Mandalay up railroad between Yadeshe station and Swa station, a 2,200 feet long section between telegram mile post Nos. 190/17 and 191/3 and a 5,280 feet long section between telegram mile post Nos. 155/0 and 156/0 on Mandalay-Yangon down railroad were destroyed.

Tatmadawmen and officials from Myanma Railways under the Ministry of Transport and Communications are repairing the damaged parts eroded by water with filling gravels and substituted damaged sleepers with new ones. Hence, a total of 91 passengers and 14 service personnel from the 11-up Yangon-Mandalay train leaving Yangon for Mandalay were transported to Swa railway station from Yedashe station and four members of the Sangha, 190 passengers and 16 service personnel from 12-down train leaving Mandalay for Yangon to Yedashe station from Swa station with the use of ten city buses of Tatmadaw.

According to the observatory measurement at 9 am on 31 August 2018, water flowed into Swa Creek Dam at 291.6 feet high,and the dam still stores 31,919 acre feet of water. Officials of the Department of Irrigation and Water Utilization Management are supervising repairing of the spillway on the right side of the dam soon quickly as possible.