450,000 People in Central Vietnam Suffer from Recent Natural Disasters: UNICEF

As many as 450,000 people in Vietnam’s central provinces have suffered from severe flooding which was triggered by strong rainfall and floods caused by water discharge from hydropower plants, foreign media reported, citing a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Severe flooding in central coastal provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Thua Thien-Hue, and Binh Dinh has resulted in more than 110 deaths and 111,851 houses flooded. Government search-and-rescue and relief operations are on-going and accelerating. Immediate needs identified include food, water, livelihood recovery, cash for debris clearance and repair of road and irrigation infrastructure. Disaster Management Working Group and UN Disaster Risk Management Taskforce are coordinating closely with the Central Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control to deliver a joint technical assessment mission to the most affected provinces between Dec 21 and Dec 23, 2016. On Dec 21, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Binh Dinh, the hardest-hit province by floods over the past two months. Between November and December, the province lost 34 lives, five missing, 10 injured, and damage worth VND1.96 trillion ($86.3 million). Meanwhile, the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control has reported that natural disasters caused 235 deaths and missing and damage worth VND37.65 trillion ($1.7 billion) in the country from the beginning of this year. (Reliefweb.int Dec 23, Tuoi Tre –Youth Dec 22, Thanh Nien – Young People Dec 21)