The municipal government of Quang Nam Province has proposed that the central government allocates VND20 billion (US $1,212,121) to help it overcome severe consequences caused by natural disasters.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and head of the Central Committee for Flood Control and Prevention, Cao Duc Phat yesterday visited Quang Nam Province to oversee repair and rehabilitation work after a nine-day flooding. The flooding has taken the lives of 14 people and devastated 75 houses in the province. The total value of losses and damages is estimated to at VND 47 billion (US $2,848,484).
As an immediate measure to help protect residents' health and ease difficulties in their daily living and production in the near future, provincial authorities have asked the government to allocate VND 20 billion, 200 tonnes of rice, 50 tonnes of seeds of vegetables and farm produce, two tonnes of chlorine and one million water purification tablets to prevent the spread of epidemics, and other medicines. The government has also been requested for more funds to help with resettlement plans and move poor people living in low lying areas to higher ground. Besides, the provincial authorities has also expected more funds for rescue equipment, building logistical bases and shelters for shipping boats at fishing ports.
Mr Cao Duc Phat instructed that municipal governments of flood prone communes reserve enough food for its residents and strengthen its rescue activities. Leaders of communes whose residents face starvation because it is blocked by floods for ten days in a row will be criticized for lacking responsibility in coping with natural disasters, he said.
The minister also advised the municipal governments to make plans to build special roads for local people to evacuate to higher ground during floods, to minimize loss of human lives.
In related news, Cao Xuan Phu, chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Dien, the hardest hit area in Thua Thien Province, told SGGP that flood waters have receded in all communes of the district except Quang An and Quang Thanh, which were still submerged.
More than 80 percent of students in the district have been able to attend school again, Phu said.