The European Commission has recently taken four decisions to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of flooding in Vietnam, China and North Korea, as well as in Cambodia which has also been affected by drought conditions. The money will be channelled through the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) which comes under the responsibility of Commissioner Poul Nielson.

Vietnam: €550,000 is being provided to help people in isolated areas of the Mekong Delta which has experienced flooding in September and October. Three sectors of intervention, food security, water/sanitation and basic non-food essentials have been identified. The projects, which will last between three and four months, are being run by four of ECHO's NGO and Red Cross partners in the field.

Cambodia: The province of Prey Veng also suffered the effects of the Mekong floods. It has also suffered from drought conditions, with almost three thousand hectares of rice paddies destroyed. €148,000 has been allocated through a partner NGO for the provision of rapid growth rice seeds for 4,700 of the most vulnerable families in the affected region.

China: A further €950,000 is targeted at people in the autonomous region of Guangxi in southern China, which was struck by typhoons and floods. More than seven million people were badly affected. 670,000 hectares of crops were damaged or destroyed, together with almost 50,000 homes and numerous infrastructures. Three ECHO-financed programmes covering a six-month period are being implemented by NGO partners, focusing on three particularly vulnerable groups - people suffering from leprosy, the very poorest sections of the population and isolated village communities. The main components of the aid are food, other basic essentials, agricultural inputs, home rehabilitation and infrastructure repairs.

North Korea: The fourth decision, for €200,000, is in response to the floods which struck the east coast of North Korea in October. The funds are for the supply of emergency relief items, including blankets, cooking sets, water containers, water purification tablets and medical kits. The project, implemented by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), targets 12,000 people in Kangwon Province who were particularly affected by the flooding.