Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính chairs an urgent online meeting from South Africa on flood response in the central region. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

JOHANNESBURG — In the face of extremely serious damage caused by floods, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính, who is now in South Africa to attend the G20 Summit, chaired an urgent online meeting on Sunday early morning with leaders of ministries, agencies and localities on the situation and urgent solutions to respond to floods and natural disasters in some central provinces.

The meeting was connected from South Africa with the Government Headquarters and the provinces of Khánh Hoà, Gia Lai, Đắk Lắk, Lâm Đồng and Tây Ninh, and the Civil Defence Command of Military Region 5. Deputy Prime Ministers, ministers, heads of ministry-level agencies, and agencies under the Government; leaders of ministries, sectors, and agencies; members of the National Steering Committee for Civil Defence and leaders of the provinces attended the event.

Opening the meeting, PM Chính emphasised that the flood situation and the efforts to overcome the consequences of the floods have been closely directed by the Politburo and the Party General Secretary, with Politburo members sent to localities to direct, visit, encourage and overcome the consequences. However, the situation is still very complicated; people are suffering very serious consequences in terms of human and property. Therefore, PM Chính chaired this meeting to update the flood situation, as well as the implementation of tasks and solutions to prevent floods according to the direction of the Politburo, the Government and the PM.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, since November 16, in Gia Lai, Đắk Lắk, Khánh Hoà and Lâm Đồng provinces, heavy floods have occurred, in which Đắk Lắk and Khánh Hoà have experienced floods exceeding the historical levels. Since November 21, the rain has decreased and the water level of rivers has dropped to alert level 1. Currently, Đắk Lắk Province is still recording floods in four communes and wards (Hòa Xuân, Đông Hòa, Hòa Thịnh, Hòa Mỹ), while floods are still inundating 87 households in Diên Điền and Hoà Trí communes of Khánh Hoà Province, and 127 households in Nam Đà and Cát Tiên communes of Lâm Đồng Province. It is forecast that heavy rain will move to the Huế - Quảng Ngãi area and by November 25, the rain will decrease.

The floods have caused very serious damage, leaving 102 people dead and missing, 1,154 houses ruined, at the peak time 186,000 houses flooded; over 80,000 hectares of rice and crops damaged; over 3.2 million livestock and poultry dead and swept away; 24 locations on national highways were eroded and blocked; railways through Đắk Lắk and Khánh Hoà temporarily stopped operating; and many transport, irrigation, education and health infrastructure works damaged.

The initial preliminary damage is estimated at more than VNĐ9 trillion (US$342.85 million), of which Quảng Ngãi suffered losses of VNĐ650 billion, Gia Lai VNĐ1 trillion, Đắk Lắk VNĐ5.3 trillion, Khánh Hoà VNĐ1 trillion, and Lâm Đồng VNĐ1.05 trillion.

The Party, Government, PM and ministries, sector and localities have continued to make great efforts to respond to and overcome the consequences of floods.

On November 21, 2025, the Politburo issued Notice No. 99-TB/TW directing the work of overcoming the consequences of floods in the central region.

On November 22, 2025, implementing the assignment of the Politburo, four working delegations of Party, State and Government leaders continued to directly visit localities, including Politburo members: Standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Trần Cẩm Tú in Khánh Hoà, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Hoà Bình in Đắk Lắk, Minister of National Defence Phan Văn Giang in Gia Lai, and President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Bùi Thị Minh Hoài in Lâm Đồng.

On November 21, 2025, the Deputy Prime Minister signed a decision to provide emergency aid of VNĐ700 billion to the four provinces of Khánh Hoà, Gia Lai, Đắk Lắk and Lâm Đồng (Khánh Hoà VNĐ200 billion, Lâm Đồng VNĐ200 billion, Gia Lai VNĐ150 billion, and Đắk Lắk VNĐ150 billion).

The meeting was connected from South Africa with the Government Headquarters and the provinces of Khánh Hoà, Gia Lai, Đắk Lắk, Lâm Đồng and Tây Ninh, and the Civil Defence Command of Military Region 5. — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Hải

The Ministry of National Defence directed and mobilised 44,668 officers and soldiers and 2,231 vehicles; transported and distributed 86.5 tonnes of goods, civilian clothes, water purifiers, 3,000 boxes of instant noodles; and mobilised three helicopters to transport and drop relief goods to people in flooded areas.

The public security force mobilised 98,509 officers and soldiers to participate in protecting security and order at the grassroots level, and 13,566 vehicles to respond to and overcome the consequences of floods.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has mobilised international organisations to provide food such as sausages, biscuits, milk and bottled drinking water to support people in flooded areas in Gia Lai and Đắk Lắk provinces; and at the same time, support 1,500 boxes of instant noodles for Đắk Lắk.

The Ministry of Finance has allocated 4,000 tonnes of rice to Gia Lai and Khánh Hoà provinces (2,000 tonnes of rice for each province).

The Ministry of Health has mobilised and allocated 6 tonnes of chemicals, 150,000 water disinfection tablets, and 3,000 bags of essential household medicine for flooded areas.

The Ministry of Construction has directed to fix the damage and clear National Highway 1. There are currently 13 locations on National Highways with local landslides causing congestion that are being handled.

The electricity sector has restored and supplied electricity to over 920,000 customers; and is currently continuing to restore electricity to 258,000 customers who are still without electricity.

Regarding telecommunications, network operators have been roaming since the morning of November 19 in Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, and Khánh Hoà provinces to maintain communications.

On November 22, the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front allocated VNĐ80 billion to support four provinces (VNĐ20 billion for each province) to overcome the consequences of floods.

Ministries, sectors, and localities have seriously implemented the direction of the PM, Deputy PMs, and the National Steering Committee for Civil Defence; resolutely deployed the work of responding to and overcoming the consequences of floods, focusing on evacuating and relocating 38,381 households with 119,938 people, and supporting food for people in flooded areas. Many organisations, individuals, and donors have organised the provision of relief aid for people in flooded areas.

Ministries, sectors and localities continue to focus on searching for missing people, rescuing injured people, visiting, encouraging and immediately implementing the best support policies for affected families, especially families with dead or missing people, families with collapsed, washed away or damaged houses; focus on ensuring people's lives, promptly supplying food, food, drinking water and necessities to people; providing rice to support people (Gia Lai and Đắk Lắk continue to request 2,000 tonnes of rice for each province), not leaving people hungry, cold, and lack of drinking water when production activities have not yet been restored.

Along with that, temporary accommodation is arranged, damaged houses are repaired and cleaned; houses are rebuilt, and houses are resettled for families whose houses collapsed or were washed away; forces are mobilised to support people in environmental sanitation and disease prevention immediately after the flood.

Relevant forces and agencies are making efforts to restore infrastructure and essential services, especially electricity, telecommunications, transport, education, and healthcare; restore production activities after floods to stabilise people's lives, especially during the upcoming Lunar New Year; effectively implement policies on exemption, reduction, and extension of taxes, fees, and land rents for those affected; direct insurance companies to promptly pay insurance to customers; implement solutions to overcome difficulties such as restructuring debt repayment periods, exempting and reducing interest; immediately deploy credit packages for customers in affected localities to restore production with preferential lending interest rates; strengthen advocacy and mobilisation of social and international resources to provide urgent and timely support to the people. — VNA/VNS