In Kayah State, farmers who depend on water for their agriculture owed about 6,000 lakh kyats from 2006-2007 until today, said U Wai Lwin, director of the Irrigation and Water Utilization Management Department from Kayah State.

“Dams and reservoirs were built by the government to get water for their farms. But the situation is that there are a lot of water tax arrears left since 2006-2007. In Kayah State, there are 6,000 lakhs of water tax arrears” he said.

In Kayah State, this year, due to climate change, dams and reservoirs have run low on water, which has led to a shortage of water for summer paddy farmers.

About 36,000 barrels of water are used per acre for summer paddy cultivation, and the water tax is only 2,000 kyats. In Kayah State, the government supplies water to 40,000 acres of monsoon paddy and 6,000 acres of summer paddy annually from irrigation and dams.