Chairman of State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing inspects replenishing Kandawgyi lake in Sittwe
NAY PYI TAW March 30
Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, accompanied by entourage, Chief Minister of Rakhine State U Htein Lin, Commander of the Western Command Maj-Gen Htin Latt Oo and official, inspected the replenishing Kandawgyi lake, which supplies water for Sittwe, this evening.
First, the Senior General and party arrived at the site of Kandawgyi lake and water storage facilities and heard reports on replenishing Kandawgyi lake with underground water and the demand for water in Sittwe presented by the chief minister, Rakhine State Natural Resources Affairs Minister U Than Tun and Director General U Bo Bo Kyaw of the Irrigation and Water Utilization Management Department.
After hearing the reports, the Senior General said water is an important basic need for everyone as humans cannot survive more than seven days without food and they cannot survive longer than one morning without water. Therefore, it is necessary to supply sufficient drinking and agricultural water. Measures are being taken to fulfill the water needs of Sittwe. In conclusion, the Senior General urged officials to conduct research for sites where underground water is available to replenish Kandawgyi lake, which play an important role in supplying water to Sittwe and attended to the needs.
Then, the Senior General pressed a button to formally inaugurate the replenishing of Thinganet Dam and Kandawgyi lake through underground water supply pipes and inspected replenishing operations.
Then, the Senior General inspected the samples of surface soil, small broken rocks and layers of sandstone taken during soil tests in Kandawgyi lake and responsible officials reported the findings during the tests to the Senior General.
Afterward, the Senior General and party proceeded to the site underground water was pumped out from tube wells in the Sittwe quality strains plantation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation in Sittwe, and heard reports on locations of chosen for drilling tube wells based on geophysical tests in the 40 acre quality strain plantation, availability of freshwater from completed tube wells and those were still being drilled, mixture of saline water found in some tube wells and storage of water in small lakes to supply water to Kandawgyi through pipes presented by Union Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation U Min Naung, Director General U Bo Bo Kyaw of the Irrigation and Water Utilization Management Department and Director U Thet Naing of the Directorate of Water Resources.
Then, the Senior General gave instructions on the needs to systematically calculate the availability of underground water and to store rain water without relying on underground water alone as the region receives heavy rainfall.
Afterward, the Senior General and party inspected the drilling of tube wells and gave necessary instructions.
As the Senior General instructed responsible officials to replenish Kandawgyi lake on his visit to Sittwe on 18 February, measures have been taken to replenish Kandawgyi lake with underground water by conducting geophysical tests at potential sites for drilling tube wells. In doing so, a 4,400 foot pipeline has been laid from Thinganet Dam to Kandawgyi lake to replenish the latter with water from the dam and No. 1 tube well and underground water was supplied to Kandawgyi lake starting from today. Measures are being taken to replenish Kandawgyi lake with underground water from other tube wells to be drilled, to lay pipelines and to install water booster pumps. Kandawgyi lake can store 481.10 million gallons of water while Kandawnge lake 1 and 2, Kandawlay lake and Triangle lake can store 62.27 million gallons of water. Toeche lake can store 119.59 million gallons of water while Setyokya lake 1 and 2 can store 120 million gallons of water. Replenishing Kandawgyi lake with underground water can contribute a lot to supplying sufficient water to Sittwe.