Vast rice losses in Vietnam flooding

Press, 20 October 1978, Page 8

Vast rice losses in Vietnam flooding

By

G. N. FORSYTH

in Bangkok

News coming out of Vietnam suggests that the countrytry has been far more affected by the recent floods — the worst in 35 years — than has been suspected.

The best indication of what must be widespread devastation is given by a comment made by Nguyen Thanh Phong, vice-chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). He said that in South Vietnam, 83 per cent of the winter rice crop has been destroyed.

To this statement must be added information from a report attributed to the central committee dealing with typhoon and flood damage. This referred to the destruction of irrigation projects which will make growing conditions difficult for the coming winter and spring cultivations, and also to the disruption of communications and transport, as well as the loss of warehouses full of seed, fuel, pesticides and fertilisers.

The loss of these supplies will mean that the effects of the floods could carry over into next year and posibly beyond by greatly reducing crops. The report states that “a huge amount” of material will be needed to get agriculture and industry back on to its feet.

United Nations agencies have rallied by sending delegations to assess damage and aid requirements. These include the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and World Food Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, and U.N.I.C.E.F. To this must be added the Norwegian aid organisation, N.0.R.A.D., which already has representatives in the

Mekong delta area to decide what help to give. Flooding from typhoons and monsoons, which have swept Indo-China since June, has also affected Cambodia and Laos, but iVetnam is in much the worse position. Flood water has reached a depth of two meters in the north, and round the Mekong delta in the south the river is a metre above its normal level.

With such a grave situation, the Government in Hanoi made an open appeal earlier this month for emergency relief to “all countries and international, organisations.” A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that damage had overwhelmed his Government’s own relief efforts and outside aid was “urgently needed.” By the end of September a total of 4,100,000 people —- or nearly 9 per cent of the population — in North and South Vietnam had had their lives disrupted, while livestock losses ranged from 10 to 20 per cent between the two zones.

At least 935.000 hectares of crop land had been inundated and another 355,000 hectares of crops destroyed by insect pests. A preliminary estimate put rice losses at 2,600,000 tonnes.

This blow could not come at a forse time for Vietnam. In addition to the need for huge food and medical supplies and assistance to halt the insect epidemic which is ravaging the remain, ing ricefields, it has also been struggling with the longterm need to rebuild its economy.

The present economy is geared to meet the demands of the military campaign against Cambodia which di-

verts resources away from the domestic construction programme which Hanoi anounced two years ago after the amalgamation of North and South Veitnam. It is known that the equivalent of 10 divisions are mobilised in the border war with Cambodia when they could be in other areas, manning flood relief schemes and making their resources available to the civilian population.

In the aftermath of the floods Hanoi is likely to look for long-term help from her new East European partners in the Council for Mutual Economci Assistance (C.M.E.A.) which Vietnam joined in June, although four of the member countries — Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary- and Poland — were reported to have been displeased with Moscow's persistence in promoting Vietnam’s membership. They apparently felt that their economies had little in common with Vietnam’s or with those of the two other developing member countries, Cuba and Mongolia. This may help to explain why only East Germany of the 10 C.M.E.A. member countries has so far supplied Vietnam with flood relief aid, in the form of food, clothing and drugs, and also why only about 10 out of 80 projects vacated in Vietnam by China because of animosity between Peking and Hanoi have been taken up by the C.M.E.A. countries.

However, disaster-stricken Vietnam has thrown diplomatic maneouvrings to the wind in its current plight, and has made its appeal for aid to the whole international community.

Copyright: World Feature Services Ltd., 1978.