Friday, 15/12/2017 16:20 (GMT+7)
The Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention on December 14th called on support for overcoming the consequences of Storm Damrey and floods in central localities in 2017.
Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention calls on support for natural disaster-affected localities. (Photo: dantri.com.vn)
According to the committee, in 2017, natural disasters in central localities left 196 people dead or missing, causing losses of VND45.08 trillion (roughly USD2 billion), out of VND60 trillion total losses from natural disasters across the country.
Storm Damrey in November alone left 123 dead or missing, affected over 165,000 houses, damaged over 11,000 hectares of crops, and killed over 650,000 animals and poultry, causing a loss of some USD1 billion.
Earlier, central localities had to overcome the consequences of the historical drought and 5 successive floods from 2014 to 2016.
The Vietnamese Government and people have made great efforts to overcome the consequences of natural disasters and stabilise people’s lives, together with the assistance from domestic and international organization, including the United Nations; the Japanese, Russian and Chinese Governments; the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management; and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Head of the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention Nguyen Xuan Cuong stressed that many difficulties remain in supporting natural disaster-affected localities; therefore, all material and spiritual assistance is precious.
On behalf of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention, Minister Cuong called on domestic and international organizations to continue to assist the affected people./.
Compiled by BTA