Pathein River

The Pathein River (Burmese: ပုသိမ်မြစ်), formerly called the Bassein River, is the westernmost distributary of the Irrawaddy river in the Irrawaddy delta of Myanmar flowing through Ayeyarwady Region.^[1] The river is also interchangeably known as the Ngawun River (Burmese: ငဝန်းမြစ်).^[2]

Pathein River ပုသိမ်မြစ် Ngawun River ငဝန်းမြစ်
View of Pathein from the Pathein River
Location
Country	Myanmar
Region	Ayeyarwady Region
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Irrawaddy River near Hinthada
• elevation	30 ft (9.1 m)
Mouth
• location	Andaman Sea
• elevation	0 ft (0 m)
Length	183.5 km (114.0 mi)
Basin features
Cities	Lemyethna, Ngathaingchaung, Thabaung, Pathein, Ngapudaw, Hainggyi Island

Seafaring vessels are able to travel about 75 miles (121 km) inland up the Pathein River to the city of Pathein.^[3] As far south as Thabaung Township, about 20 miles north of Pathein, the river becomes prone to seasonal flooding in a flood plain environment.^[4]

The river also provides fresh water to the city of Pathein through a treatment plant in the village of Mayanchaung.^[5]

Physiography

The river diverges from the Ayeyarwady in southeastern Ingapu Township, close to the city of Hinthada.^[6] The Pathein river is part of the tide-dominated Irrawaddy delta system and has several distributaries of its own.^[1] The overall Pathein distributary system carries less than 10% of the Ayeyarwady River's total discharge volume.^[7] It flows southwards and empties into the Andaman Sea next to Hainggyi Island.^[8]

Ecology

The mouth of the Pathein River is home to nesting beaches for five species of marine turtles, including the rare Hawksbill sea turtle and Leatherback sea turtle species.^[9] Thameehla Island at the mouth of the Pathein River is known to be a major nesting ground for Green sea turtle and is the location of a conservation effort by the Department of Fisheries.^[10]

References

1. Glover, H.E.; Ogston, A.S.; Fricke, A.T.; Nittrouer, C.A.; Aung, Cherry; Thet Naing; Khin Kyu Kyu; Htike Htike (24 February 2021). "Connecting Sediment Retention to Distributary-channel Hydrodynamics and Sediment Dynamics in a Tide-dominated Delta: The Ayeyarwaddy Delta, Myanmar". Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 126 (3). Bibcode:2021JGRF..12605882G. doi:10.1029/2020JF005882.
2. "The Columbia Gazetteer of the World; A to G". Columbia University Press. 2008. p. 2664. ISBN 978-0231145541.
3. Myanmar Information Management Unit (September 2019). Pathein Myone Daethasaingyarachatlatmya ပုသိမ်မြို့နယ် ဒေသဆိုင်ရာအချက်လက်များ [Pathein Township Regional Information] (PDF) (Report). MIMU. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
4. Hpyo Wai Tai (23 August 2012). "Fierce Flooding Disrupts Delta Life". ReliefWeb.
5. "Outstanding students visit Pathein's landmarks". Republic of the Union of Myanmar Ministry of Information.
6. Myanmar Information Management Unit (September 2019). Ingapu Myone Daethasaingyarachatlatmya အင်္ဂပူမြို့နယ် ဒေသဆိုင်ရာအချက်လက်များ [Ingapu Township Regional Information] (PDF) (Report). MIMU. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
7. Chen, Dan; Li, Xing; Saito, Yoshiki; Liu, J. Paul; Duan, Yuanqiang; Liu, Shu'an; Zhang, Lianpeng (2020). "Recent evolution of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) Delta and the impacts of anthropogenic activities: A review and remote sensing survey". Geomorphology. 365 (107321). doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.10723 (inactive 13 December 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link)
8. Shivananda, H (July 2011). "Sino-Myanmar Military Cooperation and its Implications for India" (PDF). Journal of Defence Studies. 5 (3). Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses: 117–127.
9. Thorbjarnarson, John; Platt, Steven; Saw Tun Khaing. "Sea Turtles in Myanmar: Past and Present". Marine Turtle Newsletter.
10. Maung Maung Lwin. "Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting and conservation activity in Thameehla Island, Myanmar" (PDF). Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter.

17.91086°N 95.45863°E / 17.91086; 95.45863