SE Asia floods leave two million homeless
SE Asia floods leave two million homeless
HANOI (AFP): More than two million people across Vietnam,
Cambodia and Thailand are now homeless as a result of the floods
sweeping down the Mekong River, officials said on Thursday.
In Vietnam as many as two million people are without shelter,
where thousands of families face hunger and epidemics as they
camp out in narrow dikes, they said.
More than 200,000 people have abandoned their homes for higher
ground in Cambodia, and in Thailand 61,626 people have been
evacuated, they said.
"The situation will be even more worrying in the next few days
as the (Mekong) delta is lower than its Cambodian branches," said
a disaster control official in southern Vietnam.
"The river's water levels are rising 5 to 15 centimeters (2 to
6 inches) each day in these areas, after hitting 5.02 metres on
Wednesday, and several villages in the delta have been flooded in
the last few days."
According to Cambodia's national disaster relief committee,
flood waters in southern Cambodia are continuing to rise, despite
levels dropping in the north of the country.
"This year the flood is abnormal... The destruction this year
is the biggest in the last 70 years of our history," Prime
Minister Hun Sen said while leading relief efforts in southern
Takeo province bordering Vietnam.
The water level in the Mekong River as it passes Phnom Penh
hit a record 11.20 meters on Thursday -- a point at which it
would naturally flood the capital, home to more than one million
people, if it was not for hundreds of thousands of sandbags now
lining the river at its low points.
The level is forecast to drop by several inches in coming
days, according to the country's disaster management committee.
The Red Cross in Cambodia said there was growing concern that
the prolonged flooding would spark epidemics of malaria, dengue
fever and diarrhea.
"We are worried about disease, health and water sanitation.
Luckily we haven't had any major outbreaks yet, but emergency
responses are being prepared," said Seija Tyrninoksa, head of the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent office.
Flooding in Thailand has already caused a massive outbreak of
leptospirosis -- a disease caused by a bacteria spread through
rat urine -- which has killed at least 224 people over and above
the actual flood toll, according to public health ministry
officials.
The Vietnamese disaster control official said on Thursday
there was a growing fear in the Mekong delta that "the pollution
from the ground water has reached dangerous levels in certain
areas of the delta."
Thousands of soldiers based in the region were mobilized to
provide assistance and to reinforce buildings ravaged by the
floods, but their efforts have been limited to rescuing people.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of rice as well as urgently-
needed medicine have been distributed to flood victims in the
face of starvation and possible epidemics.
Meanwhile, "the aid operation has proved to be very difficult
in the outlying districts and is trying to cover a vast region of
flooding," added the official.
Similar problems were being faced in Cambodia and southern
Laos where many roads have been washed away by torrents. "Relief
is going smoothly, but the break in Highway One linking Cambodia
to Vietnam has hampered relief efforts there," said Tyrninoksa of
the Red Cross.
Local officials say at least 43 people have died in the delta,
the most fertile region of Vietnam, and home to 16 million
people.
In Cambodia the death toll has risen to 131 people and in
Thailand 31 people have died. No death toll was available for
Laos, but Red Cross officials have said about 120,000 people are
affected in the four southernmost provinces.
The water levels down the entire length of the Mekong River
have been described as the highest in a generation and there
appears to be little relief in sight with six weeks left until
the end of the monsoon season.
"The floods are likely to persist until the end of October,"
the Vietnamese disaster relief official said.