Unusually heavy monsoon rains have caused devastation across South-East Asia with authorities reporting that more than 250 people have been killed in Cambodia whilst neighboring Vietnam has reported at least 100 deaths, including many children by drowning.
The death toll in Thailand, which is suffering its worst floods in half a century, has reached more than 500 with the rising waters threatening Bangkok’s 12 million residents and its Central Business District.
CARE emergency teams in Vietnam and Cambodia are making steady progress delivering humanitarian aid in a region facing its worst flooding in a decade. Over two million people have been affected in the two countries alone.
CARE Cambodia’s Assistant Country Director, Bill Pennington, recently told ABC Radio Australia that approximately 1.5 million Cambodians have been affected by the floods and that he expects flood levels to stay high for another month. CARE has recently distributed relief to 1,000 households in the badly affected provinces of Kampong Chhnang and Prey Veng. In Prey Veng, flooding has affected almost 79,000 hectares of rice paddies and 45,000 hectares are estimated to have been destroyed. For many families, this is the equivalent of losing a year’s livelihood.
‘Our assistance to Prey Veng is part of a wider program by CARE to support over 6,000 families who have had their homes destroyed or damaged, lost assets and had their livelihoods placed at risk due to the Mekong floods,’ Mr Pennington said.
‘Families have received packages containing essential food items, blankets, mosquito nets, hygiene kits and water filters supplied by CARE, with nearly 40 tonnes of rice supplied by the World Food Programme.’
‘We’ve also been working with the communities on preventative health and water sanitation and health training. Hygiene is becoming a major concern for us as the floods persist.’
In the southern part of neighbouring Vietnam, flooding in the Mekong Delta has left approximately 50 people dead, with most of the recent victims children under the age of 16 who mostly died by drowning. CARE has been working with local authorities in Vietnam to distribute life jackets to adults and children and life buoys to village rescue teams for three communes along the Mekong.
CARE Vietnam Deputy Program Director, Christina Northey, recently told ABC Radio Australia that CARE’s main priority at the moment is getting food to isolated communities.
‘We have been programming in the Mekong Delta region for over ten years and a number of the locations where we're working, people are completely cut off by floodwaters,’ Ms Northey said.
Vietnam is the world's number-two rice exporter and the flooded Mekong Delta region accounts for half the country's rice production, but with more than 8000 hectares of crops destroyed, CARE is assisting families in this region with rice, in Dong Thap and An Giang provinces.
CARE Emergency Advisor, Lara Franzen, recently returned from Vietnam and blogged that immediate relief is helping to prevent families from food insecurity, hunger and ill health from the poor sanitation and hygiene conditions.
To support CARE’s life-saving emergency work, please donate to CARE’s Global Emergency Fund.