High tide floods several residential areas in HCMC  

High tide caused flooding in several residential areas such as Districts 2, 8, Thu Duc and Binh Thanh in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday.  

Phan Dinh Phung Street  in Phu Nhuan District, Luong Dinh Cua Street in District 2 and Ngo Tat To Street in Binh Thanh District resembled flowing rivers as they were submerged under 0.5 meters of floodwater.

Yesterday afternoon, the city Urban Water Drainage Company sent workers and 6 tankers to help release water from water pipes and block water pipes in Phan Dinh Phung Street in Phu Nhuan District. However, water from the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal continued to overflow on to the street, inundating it even further.

Other roads in areas like ward 22 and 28 in Binh Thanh District, Hiep Binh Phuoc and Hiep Binh Chanh ward in Thu Duc District faced a similar situation.

High tide is badly affecting the lives and daily activities of city residents.

According to the southern Hydro Meteorological Centre, high tide levels will touch 1.57 meters at the Phu An Station on the Saigon River and Nha Be Station on Dong Dien River by October 28.

The Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention has asked the district people’s committees to be prepared and alert, especially in highly vulnerable locations which may get inundated by floodwaters such as in Districts 12, Binh Thanh, Thu Duc, Go Vap, Binh Chanh, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon.

Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the city People’s Committee directed the Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Prevention, the Department of Transport and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to focus on maintaining the dykes, keep a check on the irrigation, environmental sanitation projects, construction sites and drainage works in the city.

He also asked relevant departments to relocate households from high-risk landslide prone areas to safer zones.

Most HFMD infected children don’t attend schools: survey  

Almost 80 percent of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) infected children are stay at home kids and don’t go to schools, revealed a recent survey conducted by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced Wednesday that the Pasteur Institute had conducted a survey on HFMD infected children in highly infected areas of Ho Chi Minh City, the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong and Ben Tre.  
 
Results showed that up to 76.9 percent of hand-foot-mouth infected children never attended any school but stayed at home.

Similarly, 80 percent of HFMD infected children in the Mekong delta province of Long An, 69 percent in the Mekong delta province of Vinh Long and 83.4 percent in the central province of Quang Ngai too stayed home and were never sent to school by their guardians.

Dr. Tran Duc Long, Head of the Legal Department for the Ministry of Health, attributed the reason for the wide spread contamination of HFMD in children to poor and careless personal hygiene habits incorporated by parent’s while looking after their children.

The Ministry of Health said that the country has recorded 77, 895 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease including 137 deaths in 27 provinces this year. Despite such a high number of casualties, Vietnam has well contained the spread of this disease with ratio showing one affected case in 1,000 people, as compared to Japan where the ratio is 2.5 cases among 1,000 residents.

Doctors at the Children Hospital No.1 in Ho Chi Minh City said Wednesday that they had succeeded in saving a 14 month old baby girl from the Mekong delta province of Dong Thap, who had been admitted in a very serious condition.

The girl was hospitalized in a state of coma, with high fever and respiratory problems. Doctors even found it difficult to locate her pulse. They used the blood filtering method to save the child’s life. After one week of intensive care and treatment, the child recovered fully and now is no longer on the respirator.

Hanoi, northern provinces promote tourism links

A seminar on linking tourism initiatives across the provinces of Lao Cai, Quang Ninh and Ninh Binh and Hanoi city was held in Hanoi on October 27.

Delegates focused on better cooperation in the areas of information sharing, advertising, as well as infrastructure investment and new tourism products.

In particular, participants committed to improving State management policy, encouraging closer cooperation, and looking at ways to make tourist destinations more attractive to local and overseas markets.

Regional coast guards in talks over marine security

The bustling marine trade business and the emergence of new marine security threats has made regional co-operation among coast guard forces imperative.

Lieutenant-General Pham Duc Linh, head of the Coast Guard Department of the Vietnamese Defence Ministry, said this at the seventh Heads of Asia Coast Guard Agencies Meeting in Ha Noi yesterday.

The meeting, attended by representatives from 17 nations and territories, discussed measures to enhance the capacities of coast guards and to facilitate information and expertise sharing at the regional level.

Coast guard chiefs agreed that armed piracy was a global security threat which needed to be addressed. Participants also proposed measures to cope with piracy and efforts to improve responding to large-scale natural disasters at sea as well protecting coastlines.

Deputy Minister of the Vietnamese Defence Ministry Lieutenant-General Nguyen Chi Vinh said by hosting the event, Viet Nam hoped it could contribute markedly to security and safety at sea.

By doing this it would help maintain lasting peace and stability in the region.

Vinh said Asian coast guards should abide by local laws while respecting the laws and rights of other countries as laid down in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.

The establishment of a five-year action plan was also voiced which would prioritise specific areas and set benchmarks for capacity building programmes for each participating country's coast guard forces.

Admiral Ramon Liwag, Commandant of the Philippine Coast Guard said the meeting played an important role in fostering co-operations between the coast guards and provided a platform for countries to set up a co-operation mechanism among members in maritime security, search and rescue operations and protecting the marine environment.

Vajapey Julasri Ramchandra Murthy, head of the Indian delegation said given the complex nature of the maritime domain, security issues at sea couldn't be solved by the sole efforts from any single country, but by the concerted co-operations from all the countries who shared the sea.

The Heads of Asia Coast Guard Agencies Meeting has been held annually since 2005. This is the first time that Viet Nam has hosted the event.

Funding earmarked for domestic violence victims

Domestic violence is on the rise in Viet Nam, with 33,904 cases across the nation reported from January to September, according to deputy head of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Family Department Hoa Huu Van.

More than a third of domestic violence cases during the first nine months of the year were against women.

In an effort to counter the trend, the ministry had issued a legal document on funding for activities against domestic violence. The funds, which come from the State Budget, would be spent on activities to collect information and provide financial assistance for both victims and those who provide safe accommodation to victims.

The ministry also plans to expand its community-based domestic violence prevention model. In each commune, there would be a club acting as a forum for families in the community to exchange experiences in family life, while teams have been set up to intervene in cases of domestic violence.

There are 44 out of 63 provinces which have adopted the model and more than 11,500 organisations and individuals have volunteered to provide accommodation for domestic violence victims.

AusAid to support worker training
 
The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) has signed an agreement to fund phase II of the Viet Nam Blended Learning Programme that is managed by the World Bank through its Viet Nam Development Information Centre (VDIC).

The phase II -grant of AU$900,000 (US$933,000), to be disbursed over five years (2011-15), is the continuation of an AU$674,000 ($699,000) trust fund that AusAID had contributed to VDIC for the 2004-10 period.

The Viet Nam Blended Learning Programme aims to support Vietnamese local institutions' projects through the use of innovative learning methodology in their education and training programmes, such as applying Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in organisational capacity building and the modernisation of curricula.

"The application of ICT in education, training and capacity building, which the Viet Nam Blended Learning Programme promotes, has given Vietnamese decision-makers greater access to global knowledge" said Allaster Cox, Australian Ambassador to Viet Nam.

"It supports Viet Nam's long-term human resource development and helps strengthen partnerships between Viet Nam, Australia and the rest of the world," he added.

With AusAID's financial support, four rounds of small grants have been given to nine local institutions in the five years between 2006 and 1010.

"Through the implementation of the small grant, Vietnamese learners have been connected to local and international experts and their professional networks, establishing collaborative communities of practice to exchange knowledge and information," a World Bank press release said.

The programme has also contributed to building up research and training capacity of local staff.

The Viet Nam Blended Learning Programme is now calling for expressions of interest from institutions.

Da Nang receives gifts from Truong Sa

The People’s Committee of central Da Nang city on Oct. 27 held a ceremony to receive stones and a tropical almond tree as gifts from Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago.

The gifts are to affirm Vietnam’s sovereignty over seas and islands as well as educate people from every walk of life about patriotism, national pride and a sense of responsibility for preserving and protecting the country’s territorial integrity.

On the occasion, thousands of local people attended a ceremony entitled “Collect stones to build Spratly archipelago” launched by the Central Committee of Youth Union and the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

At the event, the province presented 110 million VND raised from organisations and individuals to Tuoi Tre newspaper.

The Vietnam People’s Navy has to date handed over stones and tropical almond trees to 26 cities and provinces nationwide./.

Vietnamese brides learn RoK language, culture

The Association of Overseas Vietnamese in the Republic of Korea (RoK) has opened the first course on the RoK language and culture to Vietnamese brides living in Incheon and Gwangju cities.

Supported by the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK and the Korean Investment & Securities Company, the programme aims to help the Vietnamese brides soon integrate into the local community.

Addressing the opening ceremony in Incheon city on Oct. 22, the First Secretary of the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK, Pham Quang Tuyen underlined that the embassy highly values the efforts of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in the RoK to support the Vietnamese community, especially migrating women.

Tuyen said he hoped the Vietnamese brides will do their utmost to acquire knowledge for themselves, and quickly integrate into their families and the RoK society.

At the ceremony, as many as 52 women in Incheon and Gwangju cities applied for the course.

Tran Hai Linh, President of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in the RoK said that the association plans to open classes in other regions to assist more Vietnamese brides in the near future./.

Korean NGO grants $40,000 to poor

The Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organisations co-operating with the Korean Association for Veteran Agent Orange (KAVAO) granted scholarships worth a total of US$40,000 to poor Vietnamese students across the country yesterday.

KAVAO is an NGO from the Republic of Korea which specialises in assisting the disabled and offering scholarships to poor students, especially those suffering from Agent Orange-related disabilities.

KAVAO has called for the creation of a fund to build a $5.6 million vocational training school for Agent Orange victims in Dong Anh, Ha Noi and a $120,000 rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities in northern Thai Binh Province.

Most antibiotics sold without prescription

Ninety per cent of antibiotics are sold domestically wwithout a doctor's prescription, according to Nguyen Van Kinh, director of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases at a conference on antibiotic resistance on Wednesday.

The research was conducted by the University of Oxford and the hospital. Thirty private pharmacies in Ha Noi were polled.

According to the research, antibiotics account for 25 per cent of all drugs sold daily. Antibiotics are typically used to treat fevers and colds.

TA