Flood Damage In Laos Costs Millions Of Dollars

Hard to say how this will affect my work in the fall...

VIENTIANE, LAOS, Aug 22 (The Vientiane Times) - The recent floods in Laos have inflicted damage worth hundreds of billions of kip (millions of dollars), destroying farmlands, irrigation systems, roads, schools and houses, according to unofficial reports.

The total cost of flood damage has yet to be officially confirmed because the government is still collecting information from provincial authorities.

But initial reports reveal extensive damage throughout the country.

In six of Vientiane 's nine districts the cost of flooding has already reached about 148 billion kip (US$78.5 million). This figure does not include damage to Sikhottabong and Xaysettha districts, which authorities are currently assessing.

In Luang Prabang province the cost of flood damage is almost 100 billion kip ($11.8 million). More than 50 billion ($5.9 million) of this damage was to the transportation sector, according to provincial authorities.

In Khammuan province the value of flood damage has not yet been calculated, but authorities say it will be worth at least 31 billion kip ($3.66 million). In that province floods destroyed rice fields, irrigation systems, roads and schools.

Almost 6,000 of the total 11,884 hectares of rice fields were damaged, along with 167 hectares of other crops, 48 irrigation systems and 41 schools. Authorities are continuing to supply clean water and dry food to villagers affected by the flooding.

In Borikhamxay province, authorities estimate damage to the agriculture sector to be at least 90 billion kip ($10.6 million). Road Number 13 South was damaged as were unpaved roads which had linked villages, according to provincial flooding and drought prevention committee head Leuam Sonsyvilay.

“We haven't calculated the cost of two flood-damaged schools and a number of irrigation canals yet,” he said.

A team from United Nations agencies is visiting Laos provinces affected by flooding, according to the national disaster management office.

Office head, Khamphao Hompaya, said UN agencies including the UNDP and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation would assess the urgent needs of villagers.

He said the amount of donations had yet to be calculated and urged ministries to report donation figures to his office so that he could inform the government.

According to Khamphao, the ministry of labour and social welfare is preparing more than 300 tonnes of rice while the ministry of health has asked for 1 billion kip ($118,131) to assist flood victims.

Most provinces were able to collect information about flood damage in areas such as agriculture, transport and education, but a more extensive assessment has yet to be completed.

(By SOMSACK PONGKHAO/ The Vientiane Times/ ANN)

Mekong hits highest level in at least 100 years

Not much news coverage can be found on the floods of this and last week...

BANGKOK, THAILAND, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Four people have been killed in flooding and landslides in Laos, where the Mekong river has hit its highest level in at least 100 years after several months of unusually heavy rain, officials said on Friday.

The communist government and private citizens in the landlocked Southeast Asian country have been rushing to complete a 2.5 metre (8 ft) wall of sandbags to stop water inundating the capital, Vientiane.

Police have closed roads leading to the riverbank to make it easier for trucks delivering sandbags, the official Vientiane Times reported.

"We've been fighting very hard day and night for four days, but after today the water level should recede," government spokesman Yong Chanhthalansy told Reuters in Bangkok.

The Mekong, which starts in the glaciers of Tibet and ends 4,350 km (2,700 miles) away in the rice-rich delta of southern Vietnam, hit 13.68 metres in Vientiane on Thursday, trouncing a high of 12.38 metres recorded in 1966, the worst floods in living memory.

That depth -- measured roughly from the river's lowest level in the dry season -- could rise slightly on Friday before retreating, Yong said.

Vietnam was recently hit by heavy rains, floods and mudslides as the remnants of a tropical storm caused the country's worst floods in four decades. At least 120 people were killed and another 44 remain missing.

In Vientiane, a levee was built along the Mekong's northern bank after the 1966 flooding but has been overrun in places, causing flooding in parts of the city of 200,000, one resident said.

There had been widespread flooding upstream and north of Vientiane, although the former royal capital of Luang Prabang had escaped with no damage to its ancient Buddhist pagodas, Yong said.

Downstream, eastern Thailand and low-lying Cambodia, where the annual flooding of the Mekong is crucial to rice and fish production, are braced for the rising waters. Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, sits right on the bank of the river.

Government officials said they had warned people living near the Mekong in the provinces of Kompong Cham, Kratie and Stung Treng to move their families and livestock to higher ground.

(Reporting by Ed Cropley and Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould and Valerie Lee)