People in Phuoc Nam commune of Thuan Nam district receive rice from the national reserve (Photo: VNA) Ninh Thuan (VNA) - More than 954 tonnes of rice from thenational reserve were sent to the south-central province of Ninh Thuan onOctober 13 and 14 to assist local people in drought-plagued areas.
According to Ha Anh Quang, director of the provincial Department ofLabour, Invalids and Social Affairs, authorities in these areas - Thuan Bac,Ninh Son, Ninh Hai, Ninh Phuoc, Thuan Nam, and Bac Ai districts - have beenasked to prepare plans for receiving and distributing the aid in line withregulations.
A total of 15,002 households with 63,634 members in these districts areset to receive 15 kg of rice per person each month. Beneficiaries are poor ornear-poor and work in agricultural production, or are classified as among themost vulnerable groups in the community.
Bac Ai and Thuan Nam districts together have the highest number offamilies set to receive the aid, at 9,343 in total.
Recipients in Thuan Nam’s Phuoc Nam commune said prolonged drought over thepast two years has left them without water for cultivation and forced them toabandon most of their arable land.
The province also experienced a historic drought between last Novemberand May this year.
As of May 24, the total volume of water in 21 lakes in the provinceaccounted for just over 12 percent of designed capacity. Seventeen lakes weretotally empty, and local people had to abandon this year’s summer-autumn crop onmore than 15,300 ha of land, losing 10,800ha of rice and 4,500 ha ofvegetables./.
VNA
