Up to 65 people lost their lives or are still missing after the two recent spells of flooding in the central and Central Highlands region of Vietnam.
The information was given by the National Committee for Disaster Prevention at a conference on dealing with the consequences of the floods in the central and Central Highlands region held in Hanoi on December 2.
Flooding in Ha Tinh Province
The committee also reported floods damaged nearly 200,000 homes, roads and railways, resulting in losses of USD308 million for the affected areas.
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung urged localities in the central and Central Highlands region to closely follow the weather situation to ensure safety for local people as well as mitigate losses to property.
Authorities need to ensure to timely support in terms of foodstuff, medicines and clean water for all affected people. Localities also have to quickly take measures to restore the lives of people after floods, Dung noted.
Deputy PM Dung said that in some places, local residents and authorities showed complacency and lacked preparedness in dealing with the natural disasters.
He also pointed out that the flood discharge methods of many reservoirs was unsuitable, causing difficulties in the lower reaches of many rivers.
At the same time, many reservoirs lacked monitoring equipment, leading to passivity in their operations, furthermore, co-operation between reservoir operators and the local authorities in informing the public of water discharges was limited.
