Speaking on behalf of the Government at a ceremony hosted bythe Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control in Hanoi on December14, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the centralregion is the hardest-hit by natural disasters in recent years.
United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam KamalMalhotra promised to offer further support to flood victims in Vietnam, addingthat governments of the Republic of Korea, Russia, New Zealand and the US have alsocommitted an aid worth 7.3 million USD to ensure food security, water supplyand environment hygiene in the affected region.
The UN, in coordination with humanitarian organisations, ismaking survey on the needs of central region residents in order to designsuitable help.
Vietnam needs financial assistance from the UN humanitarianrelief programme and international community to restore local livelihoods, hesaid, adding that the country needs to partner with other entities to launchdisaster response plans apart from receiving support from the UN Children’sFund, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Food and AgricultureOrganisation.
A representative of the survey mission stressed the need toprovide urgent food relief and makeshift houses for affected families in thenext six months, as well as strengthen joint work with private sector to diversifysupport activities and facilitate locals’ access to insurance.
Tran Quang Hoai, General Director of the Directorate forNatural Disaster Prevention and Control, said Vietnam has been hit by 14 stormsand numerous landslides and floods since early 2017, which left 386 dead andmissing and caused losses amounting to 60 trillion VND (2.6 billion USD).
In particular, storm Damrey and subsequent floods leftserious impacts on the south central region, with 123 dead and missing. Theregion reported 3,550 collapsed houses and vast inundated areas of rice andvegetables along with destroyed transport and dyke works, with damage estimatedat more than 22.6 trillion VND.
Around 700 tonnes of rice seeds, 4,400 tonnes of rice,1 trillion VND and large amount of medicine have been promptly transferred tolocal people. Domestic and foreign organisations such as the Japan InternationalCooperation Agency, the UNDP, the Chinese, Russian and Kuwaiti governments andthe ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on DisasterManagement offered relied in cash and kind to affected people.-VNA