The Prime Minister has asked the Finance Ministry to allocate more than 5,200 tonnes of rice sourced from the national reserve, to five provinces suffering from the severe drought caused by El Nino.
The Malaysian Ministry of Education ordered schools in Perlis state to close until April 1 and in Kedah state on March 31, as those regions are facing an extreme heat wave.
A workshop was held in Dak Lak province to discuss measures to prevent drought and promote sustainable development of key industrial crops in the South East and Central Highlands regions.
The Mekong Delta has been hit a double blow of prolonged drought and salt intrusion due to the impacts of El-Nino, as well as low water supplies from underground and the upper river.
Malaysia has allocated 4 million MYR (about 1 million USD) to build tube wells in six states that were hit badly by the drought, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry.
Palm oil output in Malaysia is estimated to fall by 2 million tonnes in the oil year ending September 2016 due to El Nino, said top industry analyst Dorab Mistry from India-based Godrej International.
Crippling drought and saline intrusion are forecasted to continue damaging the south-central, Central Highlands and southern regions in April due to the devastating El Nino phenomenon.
How to ease losses caused by drought and saltwater intrusion that are afflicting the Mekong Delta, south-central and Central Highlands regions dominated the Government’s monthly meeting in Hanoi on Ma
An historic flood, similar to that battered the central region with 2,000mm of rain in 1999, is predicted to hit Vietnam in the second half of this year after the most severe drought in 100 years.
The Malaysian Government on March 21 ordered all schools in Kedah and Perlis to close due to hot weather caused by El Nino, Bernama news agency said the same day.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and authorities in drought-hit south-central coastal localities are working to launch several new crop models to cope with a prolonged dry season.
The People’s Committee of the southernmost province of Ca Mau has declared a drought emergency in the locality with level-one risk after more than 49,000 ha of rice were damaged by water shortages.
The Government considers the prevention of drought and saltwater intrusion its urgent task, said deputy head of the Government Office Nguyen Khac Dinh at a regular Cabinet press conference on Feb 29.
While saltwater has intruded deep into the Mekong Delta, it is also affecting water sources for production and daily activities in nearby Ho Chi Minh City.
El Nino has aggravated drought and salinisation in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, affecting nearly 3,300 hectares of rice in Can Duoc and Can Giuoc districts.
The northern and north central region is likely to have cold weather during the Lunar New Year holiday, which last from Feb. 6 to 14, while fair weather is forecast for the southern region.
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