Vietnam’s acknowledgment of international organizations for joint efforts to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters

In the midst of the complicated disaster in the Central Coast provinces, the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (MARD) cooperated with members of the Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction to organize a meeting "Mobilizing support for people in flood-hit central coastal provinces".

Since mid-September, there have been 3 storms and 2 tropical depressions occurring consecutively on the East Sea, causing heavy rain of over 1,000 mm on October 6-13, particularly in Quang Tri 1,000-2,000 mm, especially in Thua Thien Hue 1,900-2,300mm, some stations exceeding the total rainfall in 1999 such as Bach Ma 2,869mm, Khe Ngang lake 2,276mm, A Luoi 2,290mm, and the highest rainfall of 719mm / day in Thuong Nhat.

Large floods have occurred in all 14 main river routes, in which 10 rivers have been at alarm level 3 or higher with water level of approximately 2 meters stretching from Quang Binh to Quang Nam province. Currently, a tropical depression which is operating in the East Sea is forecasted to cause extremely heavy rain (from 300 to 800mm) for the central provinces, provoking floods to floods in provinces that have just suffered heavy damage.

High floods have caused extensive inundation, followed by many divided residential areas, isolated traffic, dozens of dead and missing people, hundreds of collapsed, damaged and flooded houses, about more than 7 millions of people in the areas falling into hardship, thousands of damaged hectares of rice and crops, loss of thousands of cattle and poultry as well as hundreds of hectares of aquatic products, ruined roads, destroyed bridges and irrigation works, devastated electricity and telecommunications and so on. The damage has not been fully estimated.

At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hiep, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chairman of the Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction, stressed: “In the midst of these urgent challenges, it is the order from the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control that ministries, central agencies, local governments, social organizations, domestic and foreign donors as well as the entire community need to promote joint efforts to support people to overcome difficulties and start recovery in the aftermaths of floods and rains”.

According to the Deputy Minister, on October 20, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will organize three mission teams to assess the rain and flood situation and the needs of affected people in Central Vietnam. "We have only 3 days, October 20, 21 and 22 for the fieldtrip because there will be another tropical depression on October 23, we must make the most of this time period", emphasized Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep.

On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Deputy Minister expressed his thanks to international organizations for their efforts to the development of Vietnam in general, and natural disaster mitigation in particular.

“At the moment, the weather in the Central region is very cold, with high rain and rising flood. The people in flooded areas will feel warmer when they know that we are sitting here, trying to find the fastest way to support. The idiom "A stitch in time saves nine" reflects the situation. In such a difficult time, we appreciate more and more the efforts and supports of international organizations”, said Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep.