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Vietnam appeals for 48.5 million USD to respond to worsening drought

Xinhua, April 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Vietnam appealed to the international community for a 48.5-million-U.S. dollar emergency plan to address a worsening El Nino drought, which has affected 2 million people in the southern and central regions, the UN said Tuesday.

A recent joint rapid assessment, undertaken by the Vietnamese government, UN and non-governmental organizations in March estimated that in the 18 most severely affected provinces in Vietnam, as many as 2 million are without access to water and 1.1 million in need of food aid.

More than 60,000 women and children are already malnourished, and as many as 1.75 million people have lost livelihoods as a result of the worsening situation, the UN Vietnam said..

In the southern Mekong Delta, the drought and decrease in groundwater levels have resulted in the most extensive saltwater intrusion in 90 years, the worst since records began.

As a result of the drought and saltwater intrusion, more than 400,000 hectares of crops have been affected with varying degrees of productivity loss, and 25,900 hectares have not been planted at all, according to the assessment.

Since late 2015, the Vietnamese government has provided 5,223 tons of relief food for distribution to the three drought-affected regions and has allocated 1,008 billion Vietnamese dong (45 million U.S. dollars) for national drought relief efforts. So far, 2 million cubic meters of water has been delivered by truck and 630,000 doses of Chloramine B and 400,000 Aquatabs delivered to water-insecure households.

UN Resident Coordinator Pratibha Mehta said Tuesday that the Vietnamese government has mounted an extremely strong response so far but this is a unique event calling for a unique international effort.

"We look forward to working with the government to help meet the most immediate needs of those worst affected," she said.

According to the UN, the current El Nino event is one of the strongest on record affecting an estimated 60 million people across Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Pacific.

In response to the crisis, a global call for support and action for 22 countries, including Vietnam, will be announced in Geneva on Tuesday. Endit