Fire victims in Katonepaw Village said they want to carry out reconstruction efforts according to their own wishes using donations provided by donors, residents told the Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA).
A fire broke out in the village on January 8 due to negligence, destroying 57 houses and affecting a total of 213 residents.
Since the fire, donors from inside the country and abroad have provided assistance for reconstruction efforts. Local residents said more than 300 million kyats in donations have been collected and are currently being held by the village administration group and the village monastery.
However, a Katonepaw resident said many fire victims are dissatisfied because the funds are being controlled by the village administration group and the monastery, while reconstruction plans are being implemented without transparency.
“The donation money is being kept by the village administrator and the monastery abbot. Different donors contributed amounts such as 5 million kyats or 10 million kyats, and the total has reached more than 300 million kyats at the monastery. But the fire victims have not received any share yet. They also said houses would be built on land donated by donors, but residents want to rebuild their homes in their own way,” the resident said.
He added that the village administration group plans to build houses with stone walls on plots donated by donors. However, only about 15 households have agreed to the plan, while some other fire victims have started rebuilding their homes independently.
The village administrator said the donations for fire victims are being kept by the administration group and the monastery and are being used only for reconstruction work.
“For each household, the donation amount is more than 12 million kyats. We arranged to build houses in an organized and uniform way on the donated land. We discussed the plan with the monastery abbot before making the decision. However, some residents do not agree with it. Only about 15 households accepted the plan, so we are building iron houses for those families. The others are rebuilding their homes at the locations where their houses were previously burned. We are not stopping them,” the village administrator said.
He also said there are no plans to distribute the donation money to residents who do not accept the housing construction plan, as preparations for building the houses have already been made.
According to residents, the administration group has set the construction cost for each house at about 9 million kyats, but some fire victims said they do not trust the stated construction cost.
After the fire in Katonepaw village, emergency assistance was also provided by local social aid groups, political parties, and seven rescue organizations based in Mawlamyine.
