HÀ GIANG — The northern mountainous province of Hà Giang is urgently repairing several roads that have been severely damaged by landslides due to many days of heavy rain.

Ma Quốc Trưởng, deputy chairman of Mèo Vạc District People’s Committee, Hà Giang Province, said the highway from Mèo Vạc District centre to some communes including Tát Ngà, Nậm Ban, Niêm Sơn and Niêm Tòng has been blocked for days due to prolonged heavy rains causing soil and rock to fall down the road.

The most seriously damaged section of road passes through Tát Ngà Commune, where such a large amount of rocks slid onto the road that traffic came to a standstill.

Prolonged heavy rains in Xín Mần in recent days caused the national highway from Bắc Quang District to Xín Mần District, and the road from Cốc Pài Town to Xín Mần border gate to become seriously cracked due to landslides. It became nearly impossible for local people to travel along the roads.

In Bắc Mê District, heavy rains lasting from the night of August 7 through the entire day of August 8 caused water levels in rivers and streams to rise, seriously damaging homes, cops and State works.  

According to preliminary statistics, heavy rains damaged dozens of hectares of rice in Minh Ngọc Commune. The spillway of Minh Ngọc Commune to Thượng Tân Commune, Bắc Mê District was partially washed away by the flood, causing the main road to Thượng Tân Commune to become separately blocked.

According to Yên Bái Province’s Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Search and Rescue, after the heavy floods at the end of July, the province has provided nearly VNĐ5 billion (US$215,000) to the families of dead and missing persons and people whose homes completely collapsed.

The province also provided nearly 20 tonnes of rice, instant noodles and drinking water and six tonnes of dried food for flood victims.

Kon Tum village isolated

Dozens of houses were flooded and 10 villages still were isolated due to heavy rains in Ia H’Drai District in the Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) province of Kon Tum.

Traffic in the district has been impeded.

The People’s Committee of Ia H’Drai District has instructed communal authorities and relevant offices to carry out support works, aiming to move local people to safe areas and clean the flooded areas.

The authorities deployed forces around the clock at critical locations such as landslide-affected areas and spillways to warn local people not to enter when the water was rising and to prepare food for people in isolated areas.

Colonel Phạm Ngọc Phú, Border Guard commander of Kon Tum Province, said army forces were coming to Ia H’Drai District’s flooded areas to co-ordinate with local authorities to rescue people.

Tropical depression

The National Hydrological Forecasting Centre warned in the early morning of Friday that the low pressure area to the northwest of Hoàng Sa (Paracel Islands) has strengthened into a tropical depression.

As of 4am of Friday, the tropical depression was about 100km southeast of Hainan (China) with the strongest winds reaching level 6 (40-50km/h).

It was forecasted that in the next 24 hours, the tropical depression will move in the north-west direction at a speed of 10km/h.—VNS