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Floods in Vietnam, Cambodia: more than 1 million people affetced |
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September 16, 2000
PHNOM PENH, SEPT 15 (AP) - Record floods in Cambodia and Vietnam have affected more than a million people, with many made homeless and needing food and other supplies, officials and relief agencies say. More than 42,000 families are homeless in Cambodia due to the flooding, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry announced Friday in a statement appealing for aid. An earlier report from the country's official disaster team said 1.2 million people in 13 provinces have been affected, with nearly 30,000 people evacuated and 99,000 homes flooded, including 1,700 homes that had been destroyed. The report, dated Thursday, said 94 people had died since July because of flooding. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Cambodia on Thursday estimated that 500,000 "are in need of emergency assistance, including clothing, food, sheets of plastic and blankets." Heavy rains began in the region in July, 45 days ahead of the normal monsoon. The rainfall continued, swelling the Mekong River, which cuts through Cambodia and Vietnam and feeds numerous tributaries. "Flood water levels midstream and downstream of the Mekong River are rising and reaching the highest levels in the past 40 years," Vietnam's meteorological service said in Hanoi. It warned Thursday that rain and flood conditions in the Mekong River Delta in southern Vietnam could change unpredictably. In Vietnam's Dong Thap province, more than 110,000 homes have been flooded, Dang Ngoc Loi, a provincial official, said Thursday. He said more than 30 rescue teams are distributing food, noodles, drinking water, clothes and mosquito nets to more than 4,000 families. State television showed thousands of houses flooded in Dong Thap and Long An provinces bordering Cambodia where vast areas of surrounding rice fields had been turned into huge lakes. Rescuers, including soldiers and naval personnel, used boats to pick up stranded villagers from houses built on stilts. Friday's statement from the Cambodian Foreign Ministry underscored the severity of the flooding and noted the worst may be yet to come. "As these floods seem to continue to ravage for another extended period, the Royal Government wishes to appeal for more generous donations to the flood victims," said the statement, appealing to embassies, United Nations' agencies, non-governmental organizations and private corporations in Cambodia. So Ban Heang, the national disaster team's deputy director of emergency preparedness, said Friday that central government officials were helping local authorities cope with the problems in 13 provinces, especially Kompong Cham, Takeo, Kandal and Prey Veng, which he singled out as the worst hit. Authorities Friday were again fortifying with sandbags two dikes that protect Phnom Penh, said the capital's chief of Cabinet, Mann Chhoeun. The dikes are critical to protecting the capital, home to nearly 10 percent of the nation's population. "Everything is fine this morning," Mann Chhoeun said by telephone, shortly before meeting representatives from aid agencies. |