Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc onAugust 23 chaired a meeting on housing assistance for people affected by flashfloods and landslides nationwide, stressing that helping the victims to rebuildhouses is an urgent task.

The Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment reported that natural disasters have been very serious in recentyears when flash floods, landslides and riverbank and coastal erosion haveincreased, causing heavy human and property losses.

In 2017, particularly severe flash floods andlandslides occurred in Muong La district (northern Son La province); Mu CangChai district (northern Yen Bai province); Tan Lac and Da Bac districts and HoaBinh city (northern Hoa Binh province); Bac Tra My and Nam Tra My districts(central Quang Nam province); and Cho Moi district (the Mekong Delta provinceof An Giang). More than 4,100 houses collapsed or washed away due to naturaldisasters while almost 13,250 households are residing in landslide-prone areas.

Since the beginning of 2018, over 1,000 houseshave collapsed or been washed away as a result of flash floods and landslides.

The affected provinces have mobilised resourcesto address those consequences, but this is only a temporary solution. Theirreports show that there are nearly 5,600 families without houses or having tolive in makeshift houses at present. Meanwhile, over 42,100 others are livingin highly vulnerable areas and need to be evacuated.

Basing on the localities’ proposals, theagriculture ministry asked the PM to approve 839 billion VND (nearly 36 millionUSD) in emergency aid, including 391 billion VND (16.8 million USD) forrebuilding houses and 447 billion VND (19.2 million USD) for reconstructing essentialinfrastructure facilities.

Statistics show that among the 18 provinces andcities in need of this support, northern Yen Bai province needs the biggestrelief, 204 billion VND (8.7 million USD), for recovery efforts.

At the meeting, officials said prolonged heavyrains and the rapid rise of water level in a short period of time are among themain causes of landslides and flash floods. Therefore, emergency financial aidis critical to helping victims rebuild houses and stabilise their life.

PM Phuc said central agencies and localauthorities need to swiftly decide on necessary solutions and actively evacuateand assist affected residents. 

He asked them to make use of different resourcesto help victims rebuild houses, noting that support should vary according tothe damage each family suffers from so as to ensure fairness.

The agriculture ministry and the Ministry ofNatural Resources and Environment were requested to promptly finalise andsubmit an evacuation plan for people in disaster-hit areas to the PM.Meanwhile, ministries, sectors and localities have to actively coordinate withother forces in natural disaster prevention and control, the Government leadersaid.-VNA