Hanoi (VNA) – Flooding in Vietnam’s central and south-central regions has caused an estimated 13.078 trillion VND (496 million USD) in economic damage, according to the Vietnam Disaster and Dyke Management Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
As of 6 p.m. on November 23, 343 BTS stations on public networks remained offline, 28 fewer than at midday.
Flooding has damaged 82,147 ha of rice and seasonal crops, 117,067 ha of perennial crops, killed or swept away more than 3.3 million livestock and poultry, and affected 1,157 ha of aquaculture. Floods and landslides have left 102 people dead, 11 missing, 221 homes destroyed and 933 others damaged.
Dak Lak still reports localised inundation in two communes, while Lam Dong has 127 flooded households. Flooding has subsided in Gia Lai and Khanh Hoa.
Seventeen locations on National Highways 20 and 27C remain blocked due to landslides, while 15 railway sections between Dong Tac–Phu Hiep and Phu Hiep–Hao Son are still under repair following water releases from the Ba Ha hydropower plant.
In the communications sector, 62 out of 301 localities remain disconnected from specialised level-2 data transmission networks due to power outages.
To direct ongoing response efforts, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired an urgent online meeting from South Africa on the morning of November 23 (local time).
Following his instructions, Deputy PM Ho Duc Phoc signed Decision No. 2572/QD-TTg on November 23 approving an emergency allocation of 1.1 trillion VND for recovery efforts. Under Decision No. 3929/QD-BTC the same day, the Ministry of Finance released 4,000 tonnes of rice from national reserves to three severely affected provinces.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment called on ministries, agencies and localities to prioritise searching for the missing, treating the injured, and supporting affected families, particularly those who lost loved ones or whose homes were destroyed.
Authorities were urged to ensure basic needs, including food, warmth and drinking water, while production remains disrupted; provide temporary shelter; repair damaged homes; rebuild or resettle households whose homes were swept away; mobilise forces for environmental sanitation and disease prevention immediately after the floods; and restore essential infrastructure and services such as electricity, telecommunications, transport, education and healthcare. Localities were also asked to accelerate post-flood production recovery to stabilise livelihoods ahead of the Lunar New Year./.
