Flood-hit localities on road to recovery

Local authorities and residents in flood-hit areas in the north are still cleaning up after historic rains and floods claimed many lives and destroyed houses, crops, bridges and other infrastructure.

Floods and pouring rain started to ease on August 6, putting an end to two weeks of record floods and rain.

In the most-affected province, Quang Ninh, the provincial Preventive Medicine Centre supplied a large amount of Cloramin B for people to sterilize water.

Cleaning mud. Photo: vov.vn

After six days of repairing water pipelines damaged by floods, water supplies have been resumed to tens of thousands of households in Ha Long and Cam Pha cities.

In hard-hit Quang Hanh ward in Cam Pha city, the city's General Hospital has arranged for 12 doctors and health staff to provide free treatment and medicine to people.

A doctor, two nurses and an ambulance were mobilized around the clock at the ward's health clinic to deal with emergency cases.

At a meeting with leaders of Quang Ninh province and the Vietnam Coal and Minerals Corporation on August 5, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked local authorities and the corporation to help stabilize people's lives and rebuild infrastructure so that production could be resumed.

Dung said the Government would consider a high level of financial support to the corporation and affected localities. Ministries and sectors have been asked to estimate losses so that the Government can provide support.

In Bac Kan, the provincial Department of Transport mobilized workers and equipment to clean up eroded sections along roads. However, due to the large amount of soil involved, it is estimated the work will take several months to clean up.

Tran Tuan Tu, Deputy Director of Construction No999 Joint Stock Company, said prolonged heavy rain has caused to 10 landslides on the road it was building.

Although the construction unit had cleared up more than 10,000 cubic metres of soil, new landslides had occurred in many areas near Ang Toong Mountain Pass, Phu Thong town, Don Market and National Highway 3B and 279 in Na Ry and Ngan Son districts, he said.

In Son La province, 20 houses belong to the Mong ethnic community in Phong Lai commune are still under three to four meters of water. The commune is one of the poorest in the province. People are existing without asphalted roads, power supplies or clean water.

Vice Chairman of Thuan Chau District's People's Committee, Thao A Sua, said many people had been moved to higher places where they had been given tents and financial support until the water subsides.

The committee also proposed that the provincial authority set up a fund to resettle people whose homes had been destroyed.

In Ha Giang province, Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Nguyen Minh Tien said local authorities in affected districts had supplied food and drink for those whose houses had been destroyed. They had also mobilized police at danger spots along roads, especially in Bac Quang and Quang Binh districts.

Figures from the Steering Committee of Flood Prevention and Control showed that by August 5, historic torrential rain and floods have caused 38 people dead and missing, collapsed thousands of houses and swept away tens of thousands of hectares of crops.