LOCAL organisation Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association (FREDA) will construct three cyclone shelters in the Ayeywardy delta, the group’s vice president said last week.

Two of the shelters are now under construction, while work on the third is expected to begin later this month after a soil test is completed, FREDA vice president U Ohn said. Each shelter will cost K150 million and the construction work is being carried out by Global Sky Construction.

The funding has been provided to FREDA by German NGO Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, construction committee member U Tun Wai said.

The cyclone shelters have a capacity of 567 people and can be used as schools and for large ceremonies. Solar panels provide energy, while a tube well and water pump are used for sanitation.

“If there’s a cyclone, people will be able to live in the shelter for up to three or four days,” U Tun Wai said.

The two-storey shelters are octagon shaped, with a width of 16.5 metres (55 feet) and length of 6.6m. Each storey has a height of 3m.

Work on a shelter at Te Pin Sate village began in March and will be completed by the end of this month, while a shelter at Oak Pho Kwin Chaung village will be completed in November, FREDA said. Both villages are located in Ahmar sub-township, in Ayeyarwady Division’s Bogale township.

When the Te Pin Sate shelter is completed, ownership will be transferred to a controlling committee of senior monks, people from the village and local authorities.

A third shelter will be built at Kun Thee Chaung village in Bogale township.