182 children die in Vietnam floods

Seasonal flooding in the southern Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s main rice-growing region, has left 222 people dead, including 182 children, an official said today.

The floods, which inundated 253,000 homes in the six affected provinces, have caused an estimated 680 billion dong (£33m) in damage, said the official from the Floods and Storms Control Department.

Teams of military personnel and volunteers have evacuated more than 24,000 families to higher ground and another 20,000 still need to be moved because floodwaters remain dangerously high. However, floodwaters have begun receding in the last week.

The floods submerged 1,405 schools, preventing 313,000 students from attending classes, the official said.

To reduce the number of children drowning, authorities in the three worst-hit provinces have set up 681 day-care centres to care for some 16,500 children, he said.

The official said 190,000 families in the flooded areas are in need of assistance, but so far only 43,200 families have been given relief supplies.

Weather forecasters in An Giang province, one of the three worst-hit provinces with 78 reported deaths, said farmers are expected to start their new rice crop in late November.