With flood deaths in Vietnam rising relentlessly, the International Red Cross said on Wednesday that it plans emergency rice supplies for hundreds of thousands of victims, while the Australian Air Force will airlift blankets. A dissident Buddhist monk jailed in the past for unauthorised aid efforts vowed to do his part for the flood-hit Mekong Delta this Friday by distributing parcels, but is likely to be stopped by Vietnam's communist authorities.
John Geoghegan, chief delegate of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, estimated four million people had been been affected by the floods in eight delta provinces. Flood deaths over the past month hit 258 today including 205 children, provincial officials said.
While flood waters have receded steadily in the upstream delta in the past week, it is likely to be late-November before they subside fully and concerns have risen about disease.
''Farmers need medicines for cholera, for dengue and also for skin problems,'' said an official in Dong Thap, one of the worst-hit provinces. The Lao Dong (labour) newspaper said that while two million people needed cholera vaccinations, the health ministry had supplied only 300,000 doses and was calling on the government to spend six billion dong ($ 430,000).
Bureau Report