We don't need gold. We just need water! “ရွှေကိုမလို၊ ရေကိုသာလိုသည်”
The saying in Myanmar “ရွှေကိုမလို၊ ရေကိုသာလိုသည်” is well-known to people, especially in the tropical areas in the central part of Myanmar. It can be translated as, “No gold is wanted, only water.” As the very hot dry summer is now here in Myanmar, the people in the tropical regions in Upper Myanmar are facing scarcity of water as the lakes and wells dry up beneath the crab-drying heat of the sun. This usually happens every summer. Typically, with generosity a common trait in Myanmar, people have never been hesitant to go to those rural areas where the lakes and wells suffer from scarcity of water, and bring support to the suffering villagers. However, after Covid and the coup, these generous people can no longer go and donate, partly because of lack of funds themselves, and partly as the military is openly harassing and even assaulting those trying to help other communities.
Recently, the abbot of Yadana Bon San Forestry Monastery in Bagan has started to go out himself, and donate drinking water to the rural areas around Bagan. The monk and his disciples organize this water donation every summer. The program is named “Phyu Sin Metta Water Donation”. They carry water in tankers or carry tanks or barrels of water on trucks and they drive to one village after another. Local donors can pledge just MMK-35,000 ($19) for each round-trip of one tanker! The organizer monk and charity members request only this amount, which is lower than the actual cost of purchasing, so that donors of all economic backgrounds can give. In fact, it is not sufficient for long drives to more distant villages due to the increase in fuel prices.
As the local man Ko Oo told me, “People are finding life hard these days and their places of work are not operating as they used to. They also cannot migrate or travel to other cities due to the nation-wide economic crisis. In many rural places now, the villagers too are facing an acute lack of water. You can donate 35,000 kyats for a trip by a tanker in the photos. These villages are located around 40 miles per round trip, from Bagan. If you would like to donate a tank of water, you can donate just 25,000 kyats!”
Ko Oo also confirmed that the tankers have gone to some villages so far but there are apparently other villages are still in need of water to be donated. He said that they donate continuously from April to the first or second week of May, which is usually the hottest period every year, until the rainy season starts. He concluded the phone conversation, by saying “ထမင်းအသက် ခုနစ်ရက်၊ ရေအသက် တစ်မနက်, “ (meaning the life of rice is 7 days and that of water is just a morning). It is true: The local people in the tropical areas around Bagan are facing a lack of water which is worse than the scarcity of food which they are also facing.
If you would like to donate, we can send your donation to the needy rural people in Bagan through our reliable contacts and the local charity volunteers. Keep in mind that just $19, with the monastery covering the additional cost, is enough to reach one village, meaning donors who give $100 may contribute to 5 full villages having sufficient drinking water during this very hot summer.