Quang Nam rebuilds lives after 2020 flooding

Authorities in Quang Nam Province are trying to help residents settle down following the historic floods of late 2020.

Authorities in Quang Nam Province are trying to help residents settle down following the historic floods of late 2020.

  

Many roads damaged by landslides

The people in Village 3, Phuoc Loc Commune, have raised bees for generations and earned good money. Other families work in the fields and raising medicinal herbs. However, the flood in late 2020 swept away everything and destroyed their fields.

For the past five months, Ho Van Duc and other families have to live in a temporary home and depended on government support.

"We hope the authorities will allocate us different patches of land for agriculture. Without fields, everyone will stay poor," Duc said.

Phuoc Loc is one of three hardest-hit mountainous communes in Phuoc Son District. The flood swept away the houses and belongings of 43 households while killing three people. As of now, only half of the families have been able to rebuild their houses.

Luu Huyen Thoai, chairman of Phuoc Loc People's Committee, said their problem was the long-term livelihoods for the residents since agricultural land and equipment were destroyed.

"We had over 32ha of rice fields that could provide food for our commune for one year. But now we only have 7ha. The government is still distributing rice to local households. We all hope to work on the fields again," he said.

Doan Van Thong, party secretary of Phuoc Son, said the provincial authorities had allocated over VND65bn to deal with the damage. Many roads have been rebuilt but there are still many damaged bridges and sewer system. The mountainous terrain also poses many difficulties for the rebuild as they have to raise the fund, spend more time on evaluation to find the safest locations to set up new villages.

"Phuoc Son is a poor district with many poor households," he said.

Quang Nam started the programme to rearrange the mountainous population in association with the construction of a new village model very early. In 3 years, 6,500 households were moved into new resettlement areas. After last year's flooding, Quang Nam authorities are planning to revise the mountainous development investment policy.

Le Tri Thanh, chairman of Quang Nam People's Committee, said, "We'll review the development plans for mountainous areas and make it more sustainable with infrastructure and projects that can withstand landslides and erosion. We'll focus on reforestation and long-term livelihoods for the locals in our 10-year development plan."