by Vu Kim Chung
30-9-2001
The death toll from floods in southern Vietnam in the last week of August and up to the end September 2001 climbed to more than 165 people - most of them children - and more than 195,000 homes had been flooded as officials expressed hope that dangerously high water levels might soon start receding. Almost a million people were homeless; officials said more need to be evacuated, but many were reluctant to leave. More than 200,000 pupils could not go to school as more than 1,086 schools were flooded. About 27 medical stations and 57 offices were inundated. Some experts said deforestation upriver had led to dangerous changes in the river's flow pattern, which now was an annual disaster. Material losses were estimated at VND 497 billion (USD 33.2 million).
Disaster management officials said that 39 people had died in the Mekong Delta since seasonal floods struck the low-lying area from the latter part of August up to the beginning of September, while 10 people died in flash floods that hit coffee growing Daklak and Lam Dong provinces in August. Most of the deaths were children, including 14 out of the 15 in the Delta province of An Giang bordering Cambodia.
An official in An Giang said water levels at the key Delta gauging station rose to a level well above alarm level three, which is described as a very dangerous flood condition in which low-lying areas are submerged, river dykes are in jeopardy and infrastructure is damaged. However, the official of the An Giang anti-flood committee said water levels had started to go down on the Mekong River in neighbouring Laos.
"The water in upstream Mekong River in Pakse is going down slowly," he said. "Hopefully, if the weather does not worsen, the floods here will go down in the next few days."
Floods in neighbouring Cambodia had so far killed at least 45 people and affected hundreds of thousands. In Vietnam, officials said the natural calamity had also submerged almost 170,000 homes and more than 10,000 families, or some 50,000 people, had to move to higher ground during the first week of September alone. They said another 27,000 families, about 135,000 people, were in need of evacuation. Thousands of local militia soldiers and youth volunteers took part in the evacuation work in the Delta. More than 90,000 school children would not be able to start the new school year in the Delta on September 5 because of the floods.
Crop damage in what is Vietnam's rice bowl was negligible, as the summer-autumn crop was almost complete when the floods hit. Damage to coffee plantations was also minimal.
The Mekong Delta is hit by annual floods of varying severity, but in 2001 suffered a major catastrophe when more than 400 people, mostly children, died. Officials said the Delta was better prepared in 2001 after a crash programme of dyke building and irrigation rehabilitation as well as public awareness campaigns aimed at cutting child casualties.
Floods in the Mekong delta inundated nearly 90,000 households, 405 schools, 31 clinics, 44 head offices and damaged more than 3,000 hectares of rice and subsidiary crops as of September 4, reported the Southern Flood and Storm Control Sub-committee. The effects of the distaster grew. Floodwater submerged 21 districts of An Giang, Dong Thap and Long An provinces and two districts of O Mon and Thot Not of Can Tho province, threatening 23,500 hectares of ripening rice crops. Floodwater also damaged 13 hectares of aqua-culture in Long An and 843 fish breeding ponds in An Giang. Also as of September 4, over 73 kilometres of highways, and 570 kilometres of inter-district and inter-commune roads were flooded. Floodwater also damaged 75 bridges and eroded four kilometres of dyke.
More than 10,000 households in flood-hit areas were evacuated to safer places. The local authorities helping another over 11,000 other households in flooded areas to move to higher ground and about 1,200 others to move out of places being threatened by landslides.
The Ho Chi Minh City Fatherland Front Committee sent emergency relief aid to flood victims in An Phu district of An Giang province and Hong Ngu district of Dong Thap province, each with VND 100 million. The committee has also presented each poor family benefiting from priority policy with VND 100,000 and given VND 400,000 to four families whose members were killed by the floods.
The National Committee for Flood and Storm Control, on September 5, sent an official document to the committees for flood and storm control of Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces and the Ministry of Fisheries and Transport and Communications, asking them to inform fishermen and ships and boats owners still offshore about the coming bad weather so that they could find a safer place to shelter. Under the document, no more ships and boats were allowed to go to sea during this time. Local authorities must be on duty round-the-clock so as to promptly deal with any possible bad consequences caused by the tropical low pressure. A tropical low pressure brought along strong wind of six to seven grade on the Beaufort scale and rough sea in the Tonkin Gulf. Strong wind also hit coastal regions from Quang Ninh to Ninh Binh provinces.
Efforts made to control Mekong floods
Rescue and relief operations were intensified to help flood victims in the Mekong river delta provinces. Thanks to good preparation for the floods, most of the summer-autumn rice crop in Long An province had been harvested before the floods came. The province has also invested tens of billions of Vietnamese dong to strengthen the surrounding banks of rice and sugarcane fields and set up higher residential areas for people in low-lying areas to move to. As many as 2,200 households in flooded areas have been evacuated to higher ground and another 4,000 households will be moved to safer places if floodwaters continue rising.
Between August 28 and September 7, 4,500 households in flooded and land-eroded areas were evacuated. Another 6,000 households were moved shortly thereafter. The local authorities worked out plans to provide relief aid, including money, rice, food and medicine, for flood victims. One hundred and fifty border soldiers of Dong Thap province brought 180 households to An Giang province's border units to avoid the flood.
The Vietnam Red Cross Society provided VND 50 million as emergency relief aid to An Giang, Dong Thap, Long An and Soc Trang to help flood victims buy rice and necessities and stabilise their daily lives.
The rescue team of Da Phuoc commune, An Phu district, An Giang province saved ten pupils from drowning on September 10. The ten pupils were on the way home on a motor boat owned by Nguyen Van Sang, 26, in the same commune. Unfortunately, the boat was capsized and sunk because of a sudden thunderstorm and strong wind.
UNICEF continues to raise donations for flood areas
The representative of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam expressed the concern over the even more serious floods in the Mekong delta region, further saying that it would launch a charity donation for the region on September 11.
An UNICEF working group, after its inspection tour to the region, said that UNICEF was worried about the floods which caused schooling suspension of 170,000 children and killed 50 children out of 59 deaths. Along with the medicines already donated from the 2000 flood season, UNICEF raised charity donations to help the flood-hit areas. In the immediate future, it would grant an aid worth US $50,000 and provide 150 medicine boxes and 4,000 water filters for about 150,000 people in the region.
Vietnam floods on the rise
The residents of Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta were urged to prepare for another surge in flood waters in the third week of September, as the number of dead and homeless continued to rise. Although emergency officials said the 2001 floods were not expected to have the same devastating effect as the previous year, they were concerned that more children than usual were drowning.
In the worst hit provinces, which included Dong Thap and An Giang, water levels as of September 17 were up by about four metres, causing uncontrolled flooding. More than 16,000 houses had to be evacuated, according to government figures, and more people were waiting to be moved to safety.
The Vietnamese Red Cross on September 14 asked for international help in coping with the flooding, saying there was an urgent need for food and rescue equipment, including boats. However, Red Cross officials believed that they were better prepared after the annual floods in 2000, the worst in 40 years, killed more than 400 people.
Children at risk
Since 2000, throughout the region, roads were raised, several thousand flood proof homes were built, and local people were educated about flood safety. But for many children, it was still not enough.
Dr Nguyen Thi Hoi , from the Vietnamese Red Cross in Ho Chi Minh City, inspected some of the affected areas. She watched helplessly as a baby was swept away.
"I was watching a woman washing her nine-month old baby," she said, "using only one hand to hold it. She dropped the baby and the water was so fast, by the time she'd jumped in, the baby had gone with the water."
The Red Cross has been teaching children in schools about safety in disasters, including how to use banana palms and other buoyant items, such as plastic bottles, to float. But some parents are putting their children at risk by using the wrong methods.
"Life vests for children are not working," says Marshall Silver, a technical advisor for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "The families believe that just putting some sort of life belt around the waist will keep children from drowning. It does not. You need professional life vests which keep the head above water. Those are not available."
The government and aid agencies had been providing flood victims with medical supplies, water purification chemicals, boats and food. The local authorities said there was still a pressing need for lifevests for children, communication equipment, boats and fishing nets, temporary houses, water treatment chemicals and food. And with the flood waters expected to remain for several months, the need was to continue for some time.
By September 16 the situation had worsened. The floodwater inundated nearly 170,000 households, damaged 5,000 households, 776 schools, causing the schooling suspension of 200,000 pupils in Dong Thap Muoi (Plains of Reeds) and Long Xuyen Quadrangle areas. As a consequence of the floods, more than 98,000 families were now in need of urgent aid, which had been accessible to merely 12,000 or only one-eighth of the needy families. Last but not least, 159 child-care groups have been established to take care of more than 4,000 children in flooded areas, in an effort to protect children from drowning.
Floodwaters also caused loss of 2,500 hectares and damaged nearly 11,000 hectares of summer-autumn rice crop and inundated 547 hectares for vegetable crops, nearly 1,500 hectares of fruit trees, 900 hectares of forestry trees, 577 hectares of aqua-culture and nearly 5,000 fish breeding ponds. In addition, 144 kilometres of highways, and 1,500 kilometres of inter-district and inter-commune roads were flooded. Floodwater also damaged 500 bridges and eroded 32 kilometres of road.
Appeal targets Vietnam flood victims
The Vietnam Red Cross launched a national appeal to support victims of the floods in the southern Mekong river delta. The appeal came as the waters rose to a new peak at the end of September--still below that of the 2000 record-breaking floods, but nevertheless causing widespread hardship. Red Cross officials said those worst affected were the families of travelling workers and visiting rice traders who were unfamiliar with flood conditions. They had no stockpiles of food and their children were falling from boats and dykes.
The national appeal provided life-jackets for children, plastic sheeting for tens-of-thousands of homeless families as well as food, water-purification equipment and kitchen items. It also paid for small boats and nets so families could catch fish for themselves or to sell. Relief workers had to rely heavily on the generosity of Vietnam's business community as well as other aid groups and foreign embassies.
China was the latest to make a donation at the end of September, announcing a grant of $30,000.
Education programmes
Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Van Khai also released $2 million from a national disaster fund. Officials continued to run education programmes in an attempt to save children's lives. Parents were urged not to leave their children alone or allow them to play in the water.
Although the floods were still below the 2000 levels, officials said they could rise again in the following week.