KEY DEVELOPMENTS
· Since July, multiple tropical storms and heavy monsoon rains have caused widespread flooding across Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and the Philippines, resulting in approximately 900 deaths, affecting an estimated 9 million others, and inundating thousands of houses and acres of cropland. To date, floods have most affected locations in Cambodia, southern Vietnam, and Thailand.
· In Thailand, floods have impacted communities in 60 of the country’s 77 provinces. Although floodwaters are receding in the country’s northern and central provinces, water has begun to spread southward into the Bangkok Metropolitan Area. To date, floods have inundated several city districts.
· In Cambodia, flooding has affected 18 of the country’s 24 provinces, exacerbating poor water and sanitation conditions and impacting one-tenth of the country’s rice crop, according to the U.N. Although the situation in flood-affected regions has begun to stabilize, floodwaters are receding slowly.
· In Vietnam, floods have primarily impacted nine of the country’s 58 provinces. According to the Government of Vietnam (GoVN), current flood levels in the Mekong Delta have reached—and in some cases surpassed—flood levels from 2000, but have resulted in a comparatively low death toll, due to GoVN evacuations and other preparedness measures.
· In response to the floods across Southeast Asia, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) is providing more than $850,000 in humanitarian assistance in the region, including $500,000 in assistance through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and $250,000 provided through local relief agencies in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. A USAID/OFDA Regional Advisor (RA) remains in Cambodia and a nine-member USAID/OFDA team remains in Thailand to monitor the impact of the floods and assess requirements for additional assistance, in coordination with other U.S. Government (USG) agencies, host governments, and relief agencies.