Tears as centre picks up the pieces

The flood caused widespread mayhem, with infrastructure networks needing significant rebuilding

The picturesque Son River  usually snakes through the green mountains in central Quang Binh province’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. But, during the past weeks its waters have boiled with fury as heavy rains caused two consecutive floods.

People's livelihoods have been washed away as the painful cleaning up process begins

With its water level at two metres, it flooded more than 2,300 houses and the whole Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a famous tourist destination in Vietnam.

“The flood has seriously damaged the heritage area and hurt local inhabitants,” said the park’s vice director Nguyen Van Huyen.

“Everything is covered in mud. Everything looks like the outcome after a bombing in a war,” Huyen said.

Meanwhile, locally-owned Truong Thinh group’s Thien Duong cave tourism area in the province, which was put into operation one month ago, has also been damaged by the floods, which broke a 10 kilometre road connecting Ho Chi Minh Road and the cave.

“The tourism area’s waiting room system was thrown into an abyss. All the electricity systems in the cave have been flooded. The cave’s 1km wooden bridge is nearly out of use,” said a group representative.

These two tourism areas are among many other properties and businesses seriously damaged by the floods in Quang Binh. The province is also just one of the six central provinces of Vietnam seriously hit by the floods.

Quang Binh provincial People’s Committee reported that financial damage in the province was over VND2.4 trillion ($126 million), while 53 people were killed and many roads and public infrastructure damaged.

Particularly, the province’s information and liaison equipment and power system were soiled. The committee reported that the telecommunication centres of Le Thuy, Quang Ninh, Bo Trach, Quang Trach, Tuyen Hoa and Minh Hoa districts were drowned out.

The committee also reported that a series of fibre cable systems were broken, such as a system across the Quang Ninh district’s Long Dai river, the Tan Ly-Kim Bang-Tan Hoa system and the Thuong Hoa-Military Post 585 system in Minh Hoa district, the Phong Nha-Ha Loi, Trooc-Lam Trach, Nam Gianh-Lien Trach, Trooc-Phuc Trach systems in Bo Trach district and the Quang Trach-Canh Hoa system in Quang Trach district.

Heavy aftermath

While rain has stopped in provinces from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien-Hue, hundreds of thousands of people were still reeling from the floods.

Within only two weeks, roads have either become small rivers or  deteriorated and covered with collapsed trees, lampposts have being broken and left tangled with electric wires.

Early this month, a wave of floodwaters swept over the central region, killing 67 people. However, mid this month the region was attacked by another flood.

Statistics from the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control showed that under two floods’ influence, by October 21, 2010, about 76 people had been killed, 42 people had been injured and six missing in the deadly flooding that assaulted the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue.

Some 120,000 houses in these provinces have lost their roofs and nearly 276,500 houses were submerged, while 193 public works were seriously damaged, over 800 hectares of rice and vegetable land and 14,642ha of fish farms were totally flooded.

Moreover, some 2,200 dykes and embankments were swept away and 4,320 canals were broken.

Central Ha Tinh province was the most heavily hit by the floods, the worst in 70 years. All 12 districts and towns were flooded, with an average water level of 1.5m.

“The floods have taken everything away, even a ball of salt,” said the provincial People’s Committee chairman Vo Kim Cu.

According to Ha Tinh’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, rough estimations showed that the province lost all crops on 67,000ha of farmland, plus 37,000 fowls and over 2,000 cattle. Furthermore, more than 800ha of fish farms were swept away in the floods.

Phan Danh Ty, vice chairman of Ha Tinh Association of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, said that Ha Tinh was home to about 2,200 local and foreign enterprises, but one-fifth of which were damaged by the floods. He said that it was hard to exactly calculate enterprises’ total financial losses.

“Based on enterprises’ rough estimations, I think that the total financial loss may mount to dozens of millions of dollars,” he said.

“For example, the 50 million litre per year Saigon-Ha Tinh Beverage Factory based in Thach Ha district lost its equipment. Rough estimates show that the factory suffered a financial loss of VND10 billion ($512,000),” Ty said.

In another case, he said, locally-owned Viet Hai Company operating in commercial activities in Ha Tinh city saw 700 tonnes of cement sunk in water. Moreover, nearly 30 brick and tile manufacturing factories in the province were also flooded, with their unbaked products, machines and equipment marred by water.

“Particularly, locally-owned Hong Ha Company, engaged in construction projects, had its 12 employees seriously hurt by the flood while they were trying to repair a road in a remote hamlet. The company’s three factories were totally flooded by water,” Ty said.

Many enterprises in Ha Tinh roughly reported their heavy damages. For example, Ha Tinh Electricity Company suffered from VND35 billion ($1.84 million), Thach Khe Iron Joint Stock Company $512,000, Ha Tinh Telecommunication $512,000, Huong Son Service and Forestry One Member Company Limited $210,500 and Ha Tinh Construction and Water Supply One Member Company $210,500).

In Nghe An province, many enterprises have also suffered from damages. For example, the financial damage of the 22-12 Brick Production Joint Stock is over VND6 billion ($315,800).

“It is likely that it will take us three months to resume normal production. Over 200 employees will become jobless. We need some help from the state,” said Nguyen Xuan Thuy, director of the company.

Meanwhile, director of Nghe An Fishery Company Nguyen Thi Man said the company’s 46ha of fish farms were totally flooded, with total damage of more than VND1 billion ($52,600).

Thai Van Hoa, vice chairman of Ha Tinh’s Vung Ang Economic Zone Authority, said that many enterprises in the zone were also seriously hit. “Some big projects such as Formosa’s steel complex and Son Duong port and Ha Tinh thermo-electricity project were also affected, but not so seriously because they are in initial construction stage,” Hoa said.

Coping with calamity

At last week’s Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control’s urgent meeting to cope with the calamity, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai asked all central provinces to stay on high alert for the upcoming storms together.

Also last week, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung decided to support Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Thanh Hoa with VND660 billion ($34.7 million), 11,000 tonnes of rice to weather the flooding aftermath.

The Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control Office’s vice head Vu Van Tu said that local agencies and localities were doing their utmost to seek more missing people and called for the public and enterprises nationwide to donate cash, food, clothes and equipment to victims.

“Besides, greatest efforts are being made to watch on the calamity development and repair damage works about electricity, drainage, telecommunication and traffic,” Tu said.