31/10/2008
HANOI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Floods from heavy rain in Vietnam's central provinces have killed at least 14 people in the past week, including four children, the government and state media said on Friday.
Many roads in the capital, Hanoi, were submerged, with up to 1 metre (yard) of water in some places, and some residents had abandoned cars and motorcycles.
Torrential rain pounded northern Vietnam early on Friday, threatening dangerous flash floods in six mountainous provinces, state weather forecasters said.
Three girls aged 11 and 12 returning from school and a two-year-old boy were among the victims of floods that have hit nine central provinces since Oct. 24, the government's disaster management unit said in its daily report.
Seven people died in Ha Tinh province, three in Quang Ngai and two in Nghe An, while Quang Nam and Phu Yen provinces each reported one death.
Up to 330 mm (13 inches) of rain had pounded Nghe An province, 300 km (186 miles) south of Hanoi, since Wednesday, halting traffic, while landslides had eroded many sections of the north-south Ho Chi Minh highway in Thua Thien-Hue province.
Vietnam's main agricultural area, including the Central Highlands coffee belt and the Mekong Delta rice basket, have not been affected by the floods, although rain disrupted coffee harvesting this week.
The harvest is due to peak in mid-November in the Central Highlands, two weeks earlier than usual, but rain could prolong the drying process and damage bean quality, traders said.
Typhoons and floods have killed several hundred people in northern and central provinces since the start of this year. The flood and storm season ends next month in the central region, which is widely exposed to the sea.
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Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – Central Thua Thien- Hue province has received a wind gauge worth 3,600 USD funded by the Development Workshop France (DWF), said an official of the provincial committee for storm and flood control.
The device, which can measure wind speed up to 100m/s, is expected to improve the locality’s storm forecasting capacity, making it more pro-active in storm and flood control as well as relief activities.
The province previously invested in observation, measurement and communication devices for storm forecast, ensuring safety for storm shelters, among other measures to effectively deal with natural disasters.
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VietNamNet Bridge – A map depicting areas of the country susceptible to flooding in the event of a rise in sea levels is to be drawn up early in 2009 as part of a Danish-funded project being carried out by the Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (IMHE).
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The mapping of sea level rise scenarios as a result of climate change throughout the country, particularly around the Red River and Mekong Delta areas. |
IMHE Director Dr. Tran Thuc, speaking at a seminar on Oct. 30, said that the mapping of sea level rise scenarios as a result of climate change throughout the country, particularly around the Red River and Mekong Delta areas, is expected to provide an important foundation for sectors and localities to formulate suitable strategies in response to the issue.
The project, estimated to cost 830,000 USD, will assess the extent of the environmental impact resulting from a rise in sea levels, as well as the effects upon socio-economic development and the vulnerability of coastal regions, and suggest effective measures to cope with such a situation.
According to the results of a study carried out by the World Bank, Vietnam topped a list of 10 countries and territories around the world that would be worst affected by a rise in sea levels.
In its report, the World Bank said just a 1m rise in sea levels would negatively affect the livelihoods of around 10.8 percent of Vietnam’s population, mainly in the Red River and Mekong Delta regions.
If sea levels rose by 5m, Vietnam would lose up to 16 percent of its landmass area, which accounts for 35 percent of the country’s population, and around 35 percent of the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP).
See also : Rapid Assessment of the Extent and Impact of Sea level Rise in Viet Nam Feb 08 // www.icem.com.au 30/10/2008
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A mega-tsunami struck southeast Asia 700 years ago rivalling the deadly one in 2004, two teams of geologists said after finding sedimentary evidence in coastal marshes.
Researchers in Thailand and Indonesia wrote in two articles in Nature magazine that the tsunami hit around 1400, long before historical records of earthquakes in the region began.
"Tsunamis are something we never experienced before and after 2004, people thought it was something we would never experience again," Kruawun Jankaew of Thailand's Chulalongkorn University told Reuters by telephone.
"But from this, we are able to identify that the place has been hit by a mega tsunami in the past. So even though it is infrequent for this part of the world, it still happens and there is a need to promote tsunami education for coastal peoples."
The 2004 tsunami left 230,000 people either dead or missing across Asia, from Sri Lanka and India to Thailand, the Maldives and Indonesia. More than 170,000 of these victims were in Aceh province in Indonesia.
Jankaew's team studied a grassy plain on Phra Thong, an island north of Phuket in Thailand, where the 2004 tsunami reached maximum wave heights of 20 metres (65 ft) above sea level.
A separate team led by Katrin Monecke from the University of Pittsburgh looked at the sedimentary records on coastal marshes in Aceh, where the waves reached 35 metres.
They explored low areas between beach ridges called "swales" -- which are known to trap tsunami sand between layers of peat and other organic matter -- and discovered a layer of sand beneath the most recent layer (2004), from 600 to 700 years ago.
"Depending on where the depression is, it (the layer of the 1400 sand) can be 10 cm. But on higher ground, it can be two to five cm. Organic materials like bark and leaves, which contain carbon, were used for dating," Jankaew said.
The scientists are now trying to find out the scale of that catastrophe 700 years ago.
"We will look at the thickness and grain size of the sediment and we can calculate how fast the tsumani was, how far inland it went, and the floor depth," she said.
Jankaew said there are two more layers of sand under the 1400 layer but more studies would need to be done to date these.
Some experts blame the massive loss of lives in 2004 on ignorance of the region's tsunami history.
Very few people living along the coasts recognised natural tsunami warnings, such as the strong shaking felt in Aceh and the rapid retreat of ocean water from the shoreline that was observed in Thailand.
But on an island just off the coast of Aceh, most people safely fled to higher ground in 2004 because the island's oral history includes information about a devastating tsunami in 1907. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) 27/10/2008
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Dien Bien Phu Street in Thua Thien-Hue Province was heavily flooded Saturday
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| Incessant rain has lashed central and southern regions over the last two days, leaving many provinces and cities under water and causing major material losses. |
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In the central region, Thua Thien-Hue Province and its neighboring Da Nang City were worst hit by the rains since Friday, local authorities said.
The rains destroyed properties, felled trees, clogged traffic and closed schools in many localities.
A majority of residential areas in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue were submerged until noon Saturday, despite the fact that the river waters have yet to reach their highest levels.
Many households said their properties and belongings were swept away by sudden floods which had struck since 6 a.m. Saturday.
Their plight was worsened as the drainage system in the province failed, and waters rose up to three meters in many areas.
All schools in Hue Town shut down Saturday due to heavy flooding, according to local authorities.
In the north of Thua Thien-Hue Province, paramilitary forces were dispatched to many flooded streets such as Le Thanh Ton, Han Thuyen, Thanh Giong, Nguyen Xuan On, Le Dai Hanh, Tran Quoc Toan, or Mai An Tiem, to help with evacuation.
Other streets in the south of Thua Thien-Hue, like Nguyen Hue, Hung Vuong, Nguyen Tri Phuong, Nguyen Thai Hoc, or Hai Ba Trung were also flooded.
Rescue forces said they had to use boats to evacuate residents to safer ground.
Uncontrolled housing construction in the south of Thua Thien-Hue should be blamed for worsening the flood situation, residents told Thanh Nien.
The constructors had cleared the sites to build houses with scant attention paid to upgrading the drainage systems, they said.
The water levels in Thua Thien-Hue’s rivers were expected to continue surging and could top the highest emergency levels in coming days, meteorological experts said.
Elsewhere, in Da Nang City, the central business hub, persistent rains have also felled many trees in major streets and flooded many districts.
HCMC braces for rising waters
Flood tides are expected to soar in HCMC until next Thursday, the Southern Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Center said Saturday.
The water level in the Saigon River could reach up to 1.42 m in forthcoming days and is likely to submerge parts of the city.
Many areas in the city will be flooded if the water level hits 1.25 m.
The center told all district authorities to take necessary precautions to cope with seven new cycles of flood tides expected to occur until the Lunar New Year in late January.
The municipal Steering Committee for Flood Control and Prevention also told flood-prone districts like 12, Thu Duc, Go Vap, Binh Thanh, Hoc Mon, and Cu Chi to beef up monitoring of the dike system.
The city government also urged district authorities to expedite the progress of flood-preventive infrastructure works slated for completion this year.
Of 151 flood prevention projects scheduled for completion this year, only 10 have been completed.
The latest heavy rains on Friday also submerged many streets in HCMC, particularly in outlying districts such as Binh Chanh, Binh Tan, and 11.
In mid-October, the flood tides, the highest since early this year, had triggered heavy flooding in HCMC, bursting many dikes in Districts 12, Thu Duc, Hoc Mon, and Cu Chi. | 26/10/2008
HANOI , 26 October 2008 (IRIN) - Vietnam's rivers are fraught with danger. Though the waters are calm, they threaten to eat through the soles of your shoes, and according to some transport companies, even the hull of a ship.
Years of unchecked industrial growth have seen thousands of small and large industries dump toxic sludge and carcinogens into the environment every day. Vast stretches of rivers once lined with fish and shrimp farms have been turned into dead zones. These same rivers feed into the water systems that provide the drinking water for millions.
"Almost everyone living here has a respiratory disease or intestinal sickness," says Le Thi Nung, 49, whose family had earned a living from fishing and aquaculture on the Thi Vai River in the southern province of Dong Nai. "We are so miserable living in this polluted environment. The factories coming here did not bring us any benefits at all, just waste and pollution."
People living along these toxic waterways have complained in the past and occasionally factories have had their wrists slapped. But companies know it is far cheaper to dump waste than to treat it.
Yet in the past few weeks, in an unprecedented move, the government has started to crack down on some of the worst polluters.
In a midnight raid in early October, environmental police nabbed a leather tanning company releasing carcinogenic waste into a river flowing through Ho Chi Minh City. Several starch-producing companies, which release cyanide during processing, were shut down. And after a three-month stakeout, police caught a monosodium glutamate manufacturer in the southern province of Dong Nai, which has been dumping waste through hidden pipes for years, killing a 15km stretch of the Thi Vai River.
Growth first, environment second
For more than a decade, Vietnam's industrial output has proceeded at break-neck speed, with poverty reduction the driving force. Concerns about the environment have taken a back seat, said Doan Canh, professor of environmental studies at the Institute for Tropical Biology in Ho Chi Minh City.
"The Thi Vai River is now almost dead," says Canh, referring to one of the most polluted rivers in southern Vietnam. "No creature can live in such polluted water. And the relevant state agencies let these violations continue for more than 10 years."
But Vietnam lacks water-treatment systems. Not only do most factories lack treatment facilities but even hospitals cannot handle their own waste.
"Most of the water discharged from hospitals in Hanoi flows directly into the sewers without treatment," says Nguyen Dang Binh, vice-director of Hanoi's Natural Resources and Environment Department.
In Ho Chi Minh City, 39 medical facilities have no waste-treatment capacity whatsoever.
Unfortunately, the recent high-profile cases may not be enough to change their habits. Despite environmental protection laws that require them, few industrial parks have water-treatment facilities. Even though Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung this month ordered the government to get tough, there is little evidence that the worst of the violators have been stopped.
Vedan Vietnam, the MSG manufacturer accused of killing a large swath of the Thi Vai River, was only fined US$16,000 and ordered to pay $7.65 million in environmental dues it already owed. Despite local protests, the factory is still in business. The leather tannery in Ho Chi Minh City was ordered to close but it too is still running. This week, frustrated local authorities cut the plant's power supply in an attempt to shut it down.
"They care nothing or very little for environmental protection," Truong Manh Tien, head of the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund, told the state-run media. "In my opinion, enterprises' responsibility towards environmental protection has descended to an alarming level." 24/10/2008
Impact on 2 houses :
Left / House without preventive measures
Right / Temporary house rebuilt by the Commune - applying DWF cyclone resistant principles & techniques
Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN  |
| The tarpaulin hut where Myint Aung and his four-member family still live, more than five months after Cyclone Nargis struck | MHAWBI, 20 October 2008 (IRIN) - Five months after Cyclone Nargis deluged Myanmar's low-lying Ayeyarwady Delta, tens of thousands of people are still in need of proper shelter.
Myint Aung, 35, lost a child and everything he owned to the category four cyclone, which caused the worst natural disaster in living memory. With no money to rebuild, the landless farmer has ended up squatting by the roadside outside Mhawbi village, 10 minutes from Pyapon town, on the Pyapon River, with hundreds of others with just a 5x6ft wide tarpaulin for shelter.
"This [tarpaulin] hut is unlikely to last more than two or three months," he complained, pointing to the already tattered roof, only 4ft high. He said his two children were unable to stay inside in the afternoon due to the stifling heat.
Before the cyclone, he and his family lived in a simple thatched bamboo house near the paddy field of their employer.
Nargis affected more than two million people, made tens of thousands homeless and left more than 140,000 dead or missing when it hit the southern coastal region in May.
According to the Post Nargis Joint Assessment report (PONJA) by the UN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Myanmar government, the cyclone affected 800,000 housing units - 450,000 were totally destroyed, while another 350,000 were damaged.
The worst-hit houses were built of wood and bamboo, accounting for half of all housing in the stricken areas.
While the initial response by UN agencies and NGOs to providing immediate life-saving shelter was remarkable, the lifespan of the materials provided is only six to 12 months and some of the plastic sheeting is already deteriorating and tearing.
Most households do not have the resources to rebuild or repair more durable shelters, either because they do not have cash or because materials, such as thatch, are not readily available.
"When it rains heavily, we get flooded inside the hut because rainwater flows inside, and also rainwater enters through the tattered plastic sheets," said Aye Khaing, 36. Her family of eight sleep on plastic sheeting on the dirt floor.
These makeshift shelters often consist of little more than sticks and thatch with perhaps a plastic sheet. Upgrading them would mean rebuilding with decent materials, bamboo, wood and possibly tin roofs.
Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN |
| Some families like this one worry about the upcoming winter season | Upgrading vital
"The families have already exhausted their savings, and are not able to keep repairing their homes, let alone bring them up to a comfortable standard," said Annie Scarborough, shelter coordinator for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
"There are tens of thousands of people whose shelters need to be upgraded so they can last one or two years," David Evans, acting head of the UN's Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, told IRIN in Yangon, the former capital.
He explained that at least 20 percent of families whose houses were totally destroyed were categorised as vulnerable. For these families of pregnant women, the sick, elderly and disabled, it was not enough to supply building materials - they needed support to construct a durable shelter to last at least 24 months.
UN-HABITAT said serious advocacy work was needed to convince donors to fund longer-term shelter solutions. "We hope a much wider range of donors will understand the priority for shelter provision and support early recovery process and reduce the burden which currently rests with a small number of donor countries," Evans said.
So far the only funds received had been US$600,000 to lead the shelter coordination cluster. Another $400,000 will be available in November for training artisans and building demonstration shelters with Disaster Risk Reduction features.
Now that the emergency phase is over, surveys are under way that will help to assess the shelter needs. Arjan Blankan, recovery delegate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: "We will find out who hasn't got adequate shelter, and we will try to address this issue."
In the meantime, many families are worried about the coming winter as without proper walls they fear the cold will affect the health of children and the elderly.
Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN |
| Alexandre Tique, a meteorologist at the Mozambican National Meteorological Institute, explains that even the most basic data gathered throughout the country points to an increase in average temperatures | MAPUTO, 20 October 2008 (IRIN) - In a country as poor and vulnerable as Mozambique, extreme climatic events can push entire communities to the brink of disaster. Unable to recover from the multiple impacts of floods, cyclones and drought, they are often sent into a downward spiral of poverty.
In the past three decades alone, Mozambique has suffered the impact of 35 hydro-meteorological disasters, affecting nearly 16 million people. According to Alexandre Tique, a meteorologist at Mozambique's National Meteorological Institute (INAM), most basic statistics point to an upward trend in natural disaster occurrence due to climate change.
"In the past few years in Mozambique the number of extreme climatic events has been on the rise. We have already gathered some information showing that extreme events are becoming more frequent. For example, we now see many more tropical cyclones that bring flooding, material destruction and loss of human lives.
"Mozambique's geographical location makes it particularly vulnerable. It is next to the Indian Ocean and is downstream from many of Africa's largest rivers. This, combined with low socioeconomic development, makes the country particularly vulnerable to climate change.
"We have always had tropical cyclones, floods, and in some parts of the country, drought. These events have always been cyclical but we are now facing the issue of a changing climate and see them happen more frequently.
"The parameter that is most illustrative of climate change is temperature. A simple analysis of the data gathered in our provincial capitals, where we have meteorological stations that have kept continuous data over the years, shows a clear increase in temperature.
"In our case, the issue of natural disasters is very worrying. While we do have access to some information about extreme events, it is difficult to circulate the information to everyone that needs it, because a very large percentage of Mozambique's population lives in rural areas. We also need to get better information from these areas to complete our picture of what is happening.
"The combination of floods and drought makes many communities particularly vulnerable. In times of drought people move closer to the rivers to farm because the land is more [fertile], and they settle there to be close to their land and crops.
"But when the floods come they don't have enough time to head for higher ground. The constant change between a situation of drought to one of flooding means these people are highly exposed.
"Mozambique is a very poor country, with limited resources, so we are not worried about who caused the problem of climate change, but more about how we are going to deal with the effects."
21/10/2008
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Quang Dien District of Thua Thien-Hue Province still under water Sunday.
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| Work began Sunday on repairing damage and rescuing victims in flood-hit central provinces as water levels began to recede. |
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The toll had risen from five on Friday to at least 10 dead or missing, local authorities said.
Thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed, hundreds of cattle swept away, river banks eroded, and infrastructure damaged in the central provinces that are bearing the brunt of a spate of floods since early this month.
Many offshore seafaring vessels have also gone missing due to rough seas and strong winds, provincial coast guards reported, adding they were struggling to establish their whereabouts.
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People in Thua Thien-Hue’s Phu Loc District repair houses damaged by the floods. |
Though the waters have receded, meteorological experts Sunday warned flood-prone provinces to remain vigilant against fresh floods as the water levels still remained at high emergency level.
They were also told to keep a close eye on the weather in forthcoming days.
Most affected areas have had central or provincial officials personally lead repair work. Deputy Prime Minister
Hoang Trung Hai and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat were in Thua Thien-Hue Province Sunday to oversee progress on local reservoirs and hydropower projects.
Quang Nam Province was the worst-hit by the latest round of flooding. At least seven people have been reported dead or missing, more than 12,000 houses are submerged, and material losses are estimated at around VND22 billion (US$1.3 million).
Over 2,000 hectares of crops and shrimp ponds have been destroyed, hundreds of heads of cattle swept away, and a long stretch of dikes have burst their banks and have been seriously eroded.
The floods have also taken a heavy toll on local infrastructure, collapsing bridges and electricity poles, cutting off access to many districts in the province.
Provincial officials, along with military personnel, were dispatched Sunday to flood-ravaged areas to monitor work of reinforcing houses and bringing fishing vessels inshore.
Local authorities have prohibited residents from entering areas susceptible to floods.
A task force from the government and the Steering Committee for Flood Control and Prevention will reach the province today to oversee repair and rehabilitation work.
Elsewhere, the dike system in Thua Thien-Hue Province has suffered serious damage, and many local houses have lost their roofs to whirlwinds. The floods have also shut down many schools.
Deputy PM Hai and Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Phat paid a visit Sunday to the Binh Dien hydropower project and the Ta Trach reservoir respectively to ensure they were not affected by the floods.
In Quang Ngai Province, one person died, five were injured and 100 houses damaged by the floods, according to authorities.
The floods also destroyed a 7,200-meter stretch of traffic routes and inundated around 1,000 hectares of crops in the province.
In Quang Tri Province, traffic linking Dakrong District to Thua Thien-Hue Province resumed Sunday after being severed by heavy floods for several days.
Four fishermen stranded offshore were also rescued Sunday.
The central region had been hit hard earlier this month by Storm Mekkhala which left 21 dead or missing. | |
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