On-going floods and high tides over the past days have created higher-than-normal inundation in the provinces downstream of the Mekong River as well as in Can Tho City.

In Tra Vinh province, high tides from the mouths of the Tien and Hau rivers, two main tributaries of the Mekong River , have inundated Tra Vinh City and six districts on a large scale, according to the province's Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control and Rescue.

High tides have deeply penetrated inland with water levels rising by 50-60cm, breaching 60 dykes and inundating thousands of hectares of fruits and other crops in Tra Vinh fields.

In Ca Mau province's Cai Nuoc district, all roads in the centre of Tran Thoi Commune are submerged under water and some are 80cm underwater, according to the commune's People's Committee.

Waters from floods and high tides have flooded 15,700 houses and 91 schools in Can Tho City. The city's inner district of Ninh Kieu has the highest number of flooded houses.

Ky Quang Vinh, director of the Can Tho Natural Resources and Environment Observation Centre, said the high tides and floods that normally occurr each year have been more extreme this year.

Unlike the previous year, high tides have affected the upperstream areas of the Mekong River in Vietnam , including Tan Chau and Chau Doc in An Giang province.

Tran Anh Thu, deputy director of the An Giang Department of Natural Resources and Environment attributed the higher floodwater levels to rising high tides and the construction of infrastructure, which has restricted the flow of floods into the sea.

Construction of urban and residential areas, and transport and dyke systems in downstream areas have limited the flow of floods into the sea, he said, adding that high tides are only a secondary cause of the inundation.

Flood waters in the upperstream areas of the Mekong River , Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) and Long Xuyen Quadrangle regions in the Mekong Delta are beginning to recede, according to the Central Region's Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Floods in the delta had killed 65 people, inundated 125,858 houses and 23,654ha of rice paddies and eroded 1,564km of dykes as of Nov. 1, the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control has reported.

This year's record floods have caused an estimated damage of more than 2.85 trillion VND (135 million USD) in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam since they began in August./.