In the evening of June 22, Vietnam's northern provinces suffered heavy rains and serious landslides, causing losses in human lives and property, especially in Lai Chau and Ha Giang. By late June 24, localities reported five deaths and eight people missing.
Floods, landslides cause damage to Vietnam’s northern provinces
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Lai Chau’s Natural Disaster Prevention, Search and Rescue agency is coordinating with local authorities to conduct search and rescue operations and tackling the aftermath of the rains and floods. The number of casualties in Lai Chau triggered by heavy rains continued to rise, local officials said.
According to the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Response, Search and Rescue of Lai Chau province, as of 21:00 of June 24, three persons died and eight others went missing during flood in the locality, while property losses mounted to billions of Vietnamerse dong.
In Than Uyen, Tan Uyen, Sin Ho and Tam Duong districts, floods drowned over 200 hectares of rice farm, swept away 100 hectares of maize and more than seven hectares of fishing farm, and damaged 20 water and irrigation works. Landslides left over 500,000 cubic meters of soil blocking many roads and isolating about 20 households in Nam Cay village of Xa De Phin communes, Sin Ho district.
Meanwhile in Ha Giang, two people in Quan Ba district died as their house collapsed due to flood, while nearly 400 houses in Ha Giang city were completely submerged in floodwater. Many transportation routes have been blocked, isolating many localities.
At the same time, Bac Kan province also severely suffered from torrential rains, floods and landslides. Initial reports showed that seven hectares of rice and maize were sunken in flood water, while about 0.4 hectares of aquatic farm with about 600kg of fish was swept away, along with about 0.1 hectares of maize farm. Total losses have reached about millions of VND.
Many roads are being mobilized by the authorities to clear soil erosion
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The Government leader sent deepest sympathy to families of the victims, and required local authorities to support affected families, and providing safe shelter and food to locals.
Localities were also asked to continue inspecting areas with high risk of landslide and flashflood in order to timely issue warning and evacuate locals to safer places.
The National Committee for Disaster Response, Search and Rescue, the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Public Security were assigned to direct forces based in the localities to engage in coping with disaster aftermath.
Meanwhile, the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Industry and Trade were requested to ensure safety for dykes and reservoirs, while the Ministry of Transport must direct rapid settlement of landslides to make sure traffic in national routes is smooth.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was asked to regularly update information and developments of floods and disasters to people for preparations.
The Radio Voice of Vietnam, the Vietnam Television, the Nhan Dan Newspaper, the Vietnam News Agency and the mass media at the central and local levels have been required to regularly report on the situation of floods.
The Central Steering Committee for disaster prevention and control organizes regular monitoring the floods, urges and directs the ministries, branches and localities to apply specific measures to cope with the floods.
