Hanoi (VNA) – The ASEAN Coordinating Centrefor Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) has supportedflood-hit localities in the northern mountainous region of Vietnam with homesupplies worth 230,000 USD.
The supplies include 600 household kits, 3,000 privatehygiene kits, 600 kitchen kits, a mobile canvas house for storing goods, a16KVA generator, and 300 tool kits for house repairing.
The things, which were taken from the Centre’swarehouse in Subang, Malaysia, arrived in Noi Bai International Airport inHanoi on the afternoon of August 8. They will be sent to the needy as soon aspossible.
This is the first time Vietnam has called for ASEAN’ssupport for its people who have been heavily affected by natural disasters.
Adelina Kamal, Acting Director of the AHA Centre alsosent the sympathy from the centre and the ASEAN community to those people whohave been severely affected by floods and landslides in Vietnam’s northernregion.
She also thanked the Vietnamese Government for having belief in the centre andcalling for the AHA Centre’s support.
The AHA Centre, which is headquartered in Jakarta,Indonesia, is an intergovernmental organization formed by the 10 ASEAN members onNovember 17, 2011. It aims to create favourable conditions for and coordinatingthe cooperation between the ASEAN members and international organisations in promotingregional partnership in managing disasters.
Over the past one month, prolonged torrential rains,flash flood and landslides have affected northern mountainous localities ofVietnam, mostly Son La, Yen Bai, Dien Bien and Nghe An.
According to the Central Steering Committee forNatural Disaster Prevention and Control, as of August 7, heavy rains and flashfloods have taken the lives of 26 people and left 15 others missing and 27injured.
Floods also swept away and collapsed 231 houses,damaged 245 houses, submerged 338.5 hectares of rice, and made 398 householdsleave their homes to safer places.
Theintense floods also blew away over 25,000 cubic metres of national roads,117,706 cubic metres of provincial and district roads; damaged 145 irrigationworks and 2,072 metres of river dike, causing about over 940 billion VND (41.36million USD) in economic losses in the provinces.-VNA