Efforts made to ease difficulties for flood-hit northern localities hinh anh 1Nam Pam commune, Muong La district of the northern mountainous province of Son La, has been seriously damaged by flood. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA)
- The Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) has donated 3 billion VND (131,970 USD) to Nam Pam commune, Muong La district of the northern mountainous province of Son La, which was ravaged by flood, to build a new medical station.

The firm also presented150 million VND (6,598 USD) as gifts to locals to ease their difficulties due to the recent devastating flood.

On August 3, Muong La suffered from the most devastating flood in 70 years, causing 17 deaths and missing, along with hundreds of billions of VND in property losses.

An official report showed that floods in Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Son La and Cao Bang from August 1 to 3 had caused damage exceeding 538 billion VND (23.66 million USD).

The natural calamity left nine dead, 12 injured and 24 others missing. The flooding swept away 196 houses, destroyed 131 ha of rice and 124 ha of corn, killed more than 900 heads of fowl and cattle, and damaged several road and 144 irrigation works.

On August 4, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) also decided to provide nearly 1.6 billion VND (70,384 USD) to the three hardest-hit localities of Yen Bai, Son La and Lai Chau to help locals overcome difficulties.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has asked health departments of Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Son La, Lai Chau, Dien Bien and Hoa Binh provinces to repair health facilities affected by flood to ensure services for residents.

At the same time, the departments should implement plans to protect or move the health facilities to safer places to ensure safety for patients and health workers.

They were also directed to immediately roll out measures to clean the environment, monitor food safety, pasteurise water and prevent possible diseases.-VNA
VNA