BÌNH THUẬN — Five houses in Tiến Đức Village, Tiến Thành Commune, Phan Thiết City in the province were destroyed by strong winds, increasing flood tide and erosion in the past two days.

At present, some 30 other households are located in dangerous areas and need to be urgently shifted.

Lê Thị Kim Anh, a resident, said strong winds, high waves and erosion had occurred since the beginning of this month, with the strongest winds and highest waves occurring on Sunday.

The waves were some 5m in height and repeatedly crashed into residents’ homes, she said.

Following the incident, Tiến Thành Commune authorities temporarily moved residents whose houses were destroyed to Đức Long Ward while waiting for instructions from Phan Thiết City authorities.

Lê Ngọc Thu, head of Tiến Đức Village, said erosion has been occurring in the village since 2010, and, so far, as many as 152 houses in the village have been damaged or destroyed.

Local authorities issued land for residents in the Tiến Bình resettlement quarter in Tiến Thành Commune. A total of 116 households received land, but only 10 of them have started to build new houses.

Thu said that most of the residents were seamen with low income. To build a house, they needed to have saved enough money. If their houses were destroyed, they were penniless.

Thus, although there were issued land, they did not have enough money to build new homes.

“It is a difficult problem for local authorities,” Thu said.

Thu proposed upper-level authorities provide more support for residents to ensure they had enough funds for building houses and for resettlement. — VNS