~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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US military flies in more aid for Vietnam as UN launches appeal

HANOI - A second US air force C-130 transport aircraft flew in relief supplies for residents of the flood-stricken Mekong Delta Friday as the United Nations launched an appeal for nearly 9.5 million dollars in aid. The C-130 had touched down in the commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh city from Anderson Air Force base in the US Pacific island of Guam, US consulate spokesman Scott Weinhold told AFP.

A third aircraft, which has been comercially chartered by the US military, was due to land around midnight (1700 GMT), he said. The two planes were bringing much needed relief supplies for the delta, much of which has been turned into a huge inland sea by the region's worst floods in nearly 40 years. The C-130 brought two high-powered water purification plants with the capacity to provide clean drinking water for 10,000 people a day. Many of the more than 820,000 families whose homes have been flooded have no access to clean water after the floods swamped water mains and polluted wells, raising fears of outbreaks of epidemic diseases such as cholera.

The second aircraft was due to bring in 13 inflatable dinghies, equipped with outboard motors, to assist in the evacuation effort as well as in the distribution of food and medicines, Weinhold said. On Wednesday the first C-130 brought 87 cartons of plastic sheeting for the Vietnamese Red Cross to provide desperately needed shelter for more than 4,000 families. More than 48,000 families have already been evacuated from their homes and another 68,000 households are in urgent need, putting enormous pressure on the authorities' abiility to provide emergency accommodation. The emergency relief being brought in by the air force is in addition to the nearly 250,000 dollars already donated by Washington.

The supplies have been paid for by the US Agency for International Development while the transport costs are being borne by the Defence Department. Meanwhile in a simultaneous announcement issued in Hanoi, Geneva and New York, the United Nations formally launched an appeal for 9,433,650 dollars from donors to fund relief and reconstruction. Vietnam's needs were assessed by a special UN disaster team which visited the three worst hit provinces last week and described the figure as a bare minimum given the "exceptional proportions" of the disaster.

UN acting Vietnam coordinator Omer Ertur described the appeal from the Vietnamese government as "unprecedented" saying it was the first time that the communist authorities here had sought the assistance of the international community through UN agencies. The UN meanwhile announced that it had received a first response to its appeal from the tiny European grand-duchy of Luxembourg. The authorities there had provided 319,000 dollars ahead of a three-day visit here by Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker which begins on Sunday, a statement said.

Agence France Presse - October 20, 2000.