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Laos counts costs of recent flooding

Xinhua, August 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Southeast Asian nation Laos has called on local and international organizations, businesses, individuals and NGOs to help as it seeks some 3.3 million U.S. dollars for victims of recent flooding across several central and northern provinces.

Some 10,000 residence and business buildings in the nation of seven million have been affected along with rice paddies and crop lands, according to data from the Department of Disaster Management and Climate Change of the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources.

Access to health services, hygiene, sanitation and basic groceries, always a challenge in the landlocked country's remote mountainous areas, has been further complicated by the flooding and associated landslides.

The United Nation's International Organization for Migration estimates that between 45,000 and 75,000 people are affected across the seven flood-battered provinces.

The organization considers prevalence of household poverty and hunger exacerbated by natural disasters a major push factor in migration movements and in the prevalence of human trafficking. Endi