The death toll caused by floods following typhoon Bebinca, the fourth storm that hit Vietnam this year, had increased to 10 as of August 18, according to the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.
The Prime Minister has approved the tasks for the planning of construction of the Hoa Binh Lake national tourism site in the northern province of Hoa Binh to 2035.
At least seven have died or gone missing due to flooding as an impact of storm Bebinca, which landed in Vietnam on late August 16, according to initial reports from Son La, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces.
Citizens of Hoang Van Thu commune of Hanoi’s outlying district of Chuong My were provided with free health check-ups and medicine on August 16, as the area had been submerged by floodwater for three weeks.
Typhoon Bebinca, made landfall in the north central province of Thanh Hoa and weakened into a tropical low pressure early August 17, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
Residents must work closely with medical workers to prevent and control epidemics in areas where flood waters had been lingering in Hanoi’s Chuong My district for more than 10 days, said Nguyen Khac Hien, Director of the municipal Department of Health.
Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Tran Vinh Tuyen met with visiting Chairman of Enterprise Singapore Peter Ong on August 13, stating that his city hopes to learn from the latter’s experience in smart city building.
Flood preparation and simulated response drills took place in Tho Xuan district in the central province of Thanh Hoa on August 13.
In recent years, the Vietnamese government has made great efforts in natural disaster prevention and control. Establishing a pilot model on community based disaster risk management is on the way.
The programme to raise funds for the benefit of flood victims through sending SMS has received 21,490 responses, each with a value of 20,000 VND (0.9 USD), according to the Vietnam Red Cross Association.
The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap plans to release flood water into more than 81,000 hectares of rice fields between August and October to enrich the soil with sediment.
The northern mountainous province of Ha Giang is urgently repairing several roads that have been severely damaged by landslides due to many days of heavy rain.
Ho Chi Minh City is calling for investment to 17 flood prevention and wastewater treatment projects, and needs more than 96 trillion VND (4.12 billion USD) for the works from now to 2020.
Localities in the Mekong Delta and some ministries have been urged to stay active to respond to and mitigate impact of flooding as the Mekong River is now in full spate and the water level still keeps rising.
It is necessary to build dedicated hydro-meteorological networks in large reservoirs and install systems for monitoring reservoirs’ operation in order to better ensure dam safety, said Le Van Duong from the General Department of Irrigation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Many Thai localities are facing flooding due to prolonged downpours.
The Thai government has provided 3 million baht (over 90,000 USD) to Myanmar for flood relief and is to consider further assistance at the upcoming Cabinet meeting.
An array of key housing projects have been completed in the first months of 2018 to meet increasing demands of policy beneficiaries, poor households and low-income earners, according to the Ministry of Construction.
