Kyaw Thu, the founder of the Free Funeral Services Society, is one of Burma’s best-known actors and philanthropists. Besides running a funeral service and free clinic for the poor, he also played a prominent role in spearheading private relief efforts for victims of Cyclone Nargis, and more recently has come to the aid of people in drought-stricken areas of Rangoon Division. Interview by Aye Chan Myate.

QUESTION: Water shortages happen almost every year. How is this year different from previous years?

ANSWER: Water shortages usually last just a few days. But this year, the temperature is extremely high and as a result lakes and wells have dried up completely .

Kyaw Thu Starred in more than 200 Movies in the 1980s.He has been devoting his time social work since 2000.

QUESTION: 

So the worst affected areas are those which rely on lakes and wells?

ANSWER: 

In some areas, they have no deep wells, so they depend on lakes for drinking water. When those lakes dry up, there is no more drinking water. In some areas,  governmental organizations have confiscated lakes to breed fish. But when the weather is very hot, they cannot breed the fish there, and at the same time, the water is not clean enough for drinking.

QUESTION: Which villages suffered the most in the drought?

ANSWER: I haven’t been to the worst-hit areas, so I can’t tell you how badly they have been affected. My wife has been to some of those places, though. I have to stay here all the time to take care of the funeral services. If I went into the areas affected by the drought, there could be problems with the local authorities. I don’t want the authorities to think that I’m trying to make a political issue of the problem, so I stay away.

Whenever we donate water, we get help from people near the affected area. For example, when we go to the Pegu area, we visit the home of a donor in the city and set up a pump to fill the barrels on our truck. Each time, we can distribute 2,500 gallons of water for people in villages in Waw and Pegu townships. We do this two times a day, so we can donate 5,000 gallons a day.

But water donors have their limits. They cannot keep donating water until their own wells and ponds dry up. In Rangoon, water taps in our area have been turned off because the main water pipe doesn’t work now. We are all facing water shortages.

We are doing some assessments to drill deep wells. We have found a place in the Pegu area. I think we will drill a deep well there. I asked my colleagues to do some assessments in Dala Township, too. We will cooperate with some influential persons, such as senior Buddhist monks. We will ask them to lead the water donation effort. I don’t want to have any influence from other organizations. The donors trust us and our responsibility is distributing assistance directly into the hands of those who need it.

QUESTION: There have been reports that the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) forced water donors to fly its flags on their trucks. Have you experienced this?

ANSWER: No, we haven’t. Some of my colleagues have just gone to Dala Township. I don’t know what we will hear from them. When we went to Pegu to donate water, we didn’t have any problems like that. Our trucks were marked ‘Free Funeral Services Society (Rangoon).’ We would not have agreed to put USDP flags on our vehicles.

QUESTION: It has started to rain in the Rangoon area. Are you still donating water?

ANSWER: Well, things are not getting better yet in some areas. We went to Pegu a few days ago, then to Waw and Thetkala villages. The rain did not last long. We had many problems, too. The villagers who received water from us didn’t have enough containers—big jars, buckets and so on. So now we are thinking about building some brick ponds for them. First, we need to check how many streets there are in each village, and then we can build the brick ponds. That way, when the rain comes, they can store the rainwater. In some areas, we can’t even dig wells or drill deep wells because the groundwater is salty.

QUESTION: Do you know how many people have died or fallen ill because of the water shortages and high temperatures?

ANSWER: I don’t know about the situation in faraway townships, but in Rangoon, our funeral volunteer group is helping with nearly 80 funerals a day right now. Normally, there would be around 40 or 50 funerals a day at this time of year. I think the higher temperatures are responsible for many deaths, especially among the elderly. Ko Bala [actor Thu Maung] had a liver-related disease—he died because of the high temperature. Painter Than Myint Aung also died because of the extreme heat.

QUESTION: What are some of the challenges you face when helping people affected by the drought?

ANSWER: At the moment, we’re not having too much trouble with our water donations. We bought some 2,500-gallon water tanks. When we go to the villages around Dala, we first go to water donors in the town of Dala. After we fill the tank with water, we distribute it in the villages. Sometimes, when we don’t have water donors in Dala, we have to get the water in Rangoon and transport it to the Dala area. That makes our work more difficult.

QUESTION: Do you still have many local water donors?

ANSWER: Yes. For example, in Pegu there are local people cooperating with us.

QUESTION: After Cyclone Nargis, many volunteers assisted the survivors of that disaster. Do you see large numbers of volunteers helping in the water crisis?

ANSWER: I have seen quite a few people. But they are working under very tight controls. We learned a lot from the Cyclone Nargis relief work. There are both volunteers and ordinary people trying to help out in any way they can. The most important thing is their desire to help needy people. After Cyclone Nargis, I wasn’t able to go to every village affected by the storm, so I sent some volunteers there to take food, clothing, even money. Some misused those things and money that we received from different donors. That’s why we put the tight regulations in place this time.

QUESTION: You said that you will build reservoirs and drill deep wells for long-term use. Do you have any other plans to deal with the possibility of another drought next year?

ANSWER: Actually, we don’t have the capacity to carry out big projects. That is the responsibility of government. As you know, our main job is helping with funerals and running a clinic. I think the state should cooperate with experts and go into the field immediately and find out what they can do for the people.