VietNamNet Bridge – Floods and storms have triggered total losses of over VND50 trillion over the past three years, including around VND25 trillion this year alone.

A house collapses after a severe flood sweeps through An Nhon Commune in the central province of Binh Dinh in the middle of this month, with dozens of people killed and hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed - Photo: TTXVN

According to the latest report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 264 people were killed and went missing while others were injured as a result of floods and storms as of November 18. Besides, nearly 12,000 houses were damaged, 707,000 others were unroofed while the total area of crops and seafood farms destroyed was nearly 434,000 hectares.

In 2012, calamities caused total losses of VND16 trillion with the number of dead and missing reaching 258. The figures for 2011 were VND922 billion and 295 casualties respectively.

This year, 15 storms have hit the nation, of which Super Typhoon Haiyan, the 14th storm to hammer the country, caused the heaviest damage. The nation suffered 10 storms in 2012 and seven in 2011.

The ministry said that many localities are short of seedlings for the winter-spring crop. So, it has asked seedling producers to provide 3,500 tons of rice seeds, 552 tons of corn seeds and 88 tons of vegetable seeds from the national stock to localities.

The report said that some irrigation and hydropower plant projects have no choice but to discharge water into lower areas recently. The ministry suggested that a warning system should be built up soon to help avoid losses caused by floodwater discharge.

The ministry has also suggested the Government to reschedule loans and provide more credits for families and fishing villages hit by floods and storms.

Source: SGT