New Vietnam aid appeal as floods continue to surge
MEKONG DELTA - The Red Cross said on Friday it
would make a fresh appeal for emergency aid for Vietnam, where the worst
floods in decades have killed at least 13 people and driven 150,000 others
from their homes.
Monsoon rains dumped more unwelcome torrents into the stricken Mekong Delta
rice bowl on Friday morning, threatening to drive a further 500,000 people
from low-lying homes to seek safety on earthwork dykes, many of which are now
crumbling.
``It's a very worrying situation,'' said John Geoghegan, chief Vietnam
delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (IFRC), which is coordinating international assistance.
``It's a definite humanitarian disaster with very large numbers of people
affected, and it's going to get worse.''
Geoghegan said the Red Cross would be meeting donors to appeal for fresh
relief donations of up to $1.5 million to supplement Vietnamese government
relief efforts.
He said the appeal would cover plastic sheeting for emergency shelters for
around 35,000 people, at least 2,500 tonnes of rice, 25,000 mosquito nets and
possibly 3,000 cheap locally produced boats.
On Thursday, the IFRC appealed for $1.9 million to help up to 600,000 flood
and storm victims in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia who had lost homes and
farmland. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the flooding in his country
was the worst in 70 years.
Some $300,000 from the Thursday appeal was earmarked for Vietnam to help
100,000 people in central parts of the country hit by tropical storm Wukong
last Sunday, which killed at least two people, injured 69 others and
flattened thousands of homes.
SURGE PAST DANGER LEVEL
In Vietnam, swelling flood waters from the mighty Mekong River and its
tributaries have already surged well above danger levels and turned vast
areas of Long An, Dong Thap and An Giang provinces bordering Cambodia into
inland seas. Further deluges are expected in coming days.
Geoghegan estimated 140,000-150,000 people had already taken refuge on dykes
and another 500,000 peoples' homes had been seriously flooded, some up to the
rafters.
On Friday, authorities in An Giang reported the deaths of five children aged
from three to seven years old, bringing the toll in the past week in the
three provinces to 13.
Villagers camped on a dyke in the Delta surrounded by steadily rising waters
already metres deep told Reuters on Thursday they had almost no food and no
clean water.
Floods and typhoons lash Vietnam every year from July, and have killed at
least 45 people this year. Last November, typhoons and floods in the central
coastal areas killed 730 people.
Cambodian officials said 88 people had been reported killed in flooding this
year.
Prompt rescue efforts by thousands of soldiers and volunteers have held down
Delta deaths, but rapidly rising water levels threaten increasing numbers of
people.
DEATHS SET TO RISE
Local officials say nearly half the land area of the three worst-hit
provinces is submerged with water levels above or approaching those of 1996,
when floods killed 180 people.
``The numbers (of deaths) have got to increase as a lot more people have to
leave their homes and there's the risk of more dykes crumbling,'' Geoghegan
said.
Many of those clinging onto their homes, fearing the loss of what meagre
possessions they had managed to salvage, would have to move as the waters
rose, and the rising floods also threatened further damage to flood defences,
he said.
On Thursday, Cambodia sought help for an estimated 600,000 people hit by the
floods, caused by monsoon downpours that have swollen the Mekong River from
Laos down to the Mekong Delta.
Geoghegan said deforestation in Laos and Cambodia would have added to the
severity of the floods, but heavy rainfall was the main factor.
The impact on Vietnam's rice output has been slight as the Delta harvest was
almost complete when the floods hit. Officials said 24,000 hectares (60,000
acres) of rice were lost in all three provinces but traders say stocks are
plentiful.
Reuters - September 15, 2000.
|