Ambassador of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Park Noh-Wan on October 29 handed over US$300,000 in cash from the RoK government to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep to help flood-hit provinces in central Vietnam.

Ambassador of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Park Noh-Wan (third from the left) 
hands over US$300,000 in cash from the RoK government to Deputy Minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep (third from the right)
to help flood-hit provinces in central Vietnam.

Deputy Minister Hiep thanked the RoK for its kind gesture to Vietnamese people who are suffering hardships caused by natural disasters.

The financial assistance will be properly used to help affected people, he pledged, adding that several options are being considered, including cash relief, financial support for house repairing and development of local-level storm and flood warning systems.

Since October 6, downpours brought by storms Linfa and Nangka caused record flooding and serious landslides on a wide scale in the central region of Vietnam. As of October 25, the death toll during the disaster reached 130, with 18 still missing.

Some 150,000 flood survivors in the region will be in urgent need of food aid over the next five to six months, while 110,000 vulnerable people will require support to recover their livelihoods and agricultural production, according to a report of the Disaster Risk Reduction Partnership (DRRP).

The report shows that around 7 million people in affected areas are living in temporary shelters or in vulnerable structures or houses. Those whose homes were submerged in floodwater are not likely to return to normality for three or five weeks.