September 19, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

FLOODS THREATEN MILLIONS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA

LONDON, September 19, Graphic News: MORE than a million people living along the mighty Mekong River in South-East Asia have lost their homes following the worst floods in a generation, say aid workers.

Two months of unusually heavy rains have flooded southeastern Cambodia and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, destroyed homes, belongings, land, and livestock, and claimed more than 160 lives.

In Vietnam swelling flood waters from the Mekong and its tributaries have urged well above danger levels and turned vast areas of the countryŐs rice-growing provinces, bordering Cambodia, into inland seas. Further deluges are expected in coming days.

An estimated 140,000-150,000 people have taken refuge on crumbling earthwork dykes and the homes of a further 500,000 people have been seriously flooded, some as high as the rafters.

Cambodian villagers have been forced to camp on Route 6, which connects the capital Phnom Penh to the countryŐs most populous and hardest-hit province of Kompong Cham, while Phnom Penh itself remains in serious danger of being inundated by the rising waters.

As well as damage to property and livestock, flood waters in the Mekong Delta rice bowl are placing dyke systems in jeopardy and threatening thousands of hectares of paddy fields.

Although the summer-autumn rice harvest is almost complete, the floods are expected to delay or prevent planting of a third crop -- known as the 10th-month crop -- in the three Delta provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Long An.

Last week, the Red Cross appealed for $1.9 million in aid, with the bulk to go to Cambodia. On Monday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an additional appeal of up to $1.5 million for Vietnam.

John Geoghegan, chief Vietnam delegate for the IFRC, said $750,000 had been pledged so far. The organization is spending $50,000 to buy plastic sheeting, rice and mosquito nets.

ŇItŐs a definite humanitarian disaster with very large numbers of people affected, and itŐs going to get worse,Ó he said.

Vietnam is regularly hit by floods and typhoons during the July-October period. A typhoon and ensuing floods in the central coastal areas in early November last year killed 730 people.
/ENDS

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, BBC World Service