Johannesburg (VNA) - In the face of extremely serious damage caused by floods, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, who is now in South Africa to attend the G20 Summit, chaired an urgent online meeting in the early morning of November 23 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 Khanh Hoa, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Lam Dong and Tay 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 Chinh 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 Chinh 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, Dak Lak, Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong provinces, heavy floods have occurred, in which Dak Lak and Khanh Hoa 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, Dak Lak province is still recording floods in four communes and wards (Hoa Xuan, Dong Hoa, Hoa Thinh, Hoa My), while floods are still inundating 87 households in Dien Dien and Hoa Tri communes of Khanh Hoa province, and 127 households in Nam Da and Cat Tien communes of Lam Dong province. It is forecast that heavy rain will move to the Hue - Quang Ngai 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 Dak Lak and Khanh Hoa temporarily stopped operating; and many transport, irrigation, education and health infrastructure works damaged.
The initial preliminary damage is estimated at 9,035 billion VND (342.85 million USD), of which Quang Ngai suffered losses of 650 billion VND, Gia Lai 1,000 billion VND, Dak Lak 5,330 billion VND, Khanh Hoa 1,000 billion VND, and Lam Dong 1,055 billion VND.
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, 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 Tran Cam Tu in Khanh Hoa, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh in Dak Lak, Minister of National Defence Phan Van Giang in Gia Lai, and President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Bui Thi Minh Hoai in Lam Dong.
On November 21, the Deputy Prime Minister signed a decision to provide emergency aid of 700 billion VND to the four provinces of Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Dak Lak (Khanh Hoa 200 billion VND, Lam Dong 200 billion VND, Gia Lai 150 billion VND, and Dak Lak 150 billion VND).
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 Dak Lak provinces; and at the same time, support 1,500 boxes of instant noodles for Dak Lak.
The Ministry of Finance has allocated 4,000 tonnes of rice to Gia Lai and Khanh Hoa 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 Dak Lak, Gia Lai, and Khanh Hoa provinces to maintain communications.
On November 22, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front allocated 80 billion VND to support four provinces (20 billion VND 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 Dak Lak 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./.
