Caritas says people are in urgent need of food, clean water, shelter, medicine and clothes following flooding caused by Typhoon Mirinae.

The storm hit Vietnam’s southern central coast on 2 November, causing floods that swept away 1,300 homes and submerged 60,000 more in the central and southern parts of the country.

Mirinae’s rains also damaged over 800 school classrooms and 100 medical clinics.

Caritas Vietnam will begin distributing rice, noodles, cloths and blankets to the victims in these areas beginning 10 November.

Caritas staff say crops were almost totally lost, leaving residents in need of food for at least the next six months. Over 10,673 hectares of rice fields, 7,579 hectares of farm products, and 11,553 hectares of corn and sugar-cane were flooded.

Typhoon Mirinae follows previous storms Ketsana in September and Parma in October that also caused extensive damage. Caritas staff said flood water overflowed makeshift dams built after the last two storms and was able to wash away many more houses.

Caritas were already planning rehabilitation projects for the areas seriously damaged by floods cause by typhoons Ketsana and Parma.

Caritas Vietnam will run emergency training courses with the support of Caritas Germany this December because it fears the country will have to face multiple natural disasters due to climate change.

Vietnam will lose two million hectares of rice fields as the sea level rises unless protective measures are taken, according its government.

Ministers say if the sea level rises by one metre, 90 percent of land areas in the Mekong Delta region will be submerged when floods occur and 70 percent of land areas will have high levels of salt in the dry season.

The Asian Development Bank says a temperature increase of 10C will lead to rice productivity dropping by 10 percent on average annually. These factors will cause hunger in Vietnam and the world as Vietnam is the world’s second biggest rice exporter.

Please contact Patrick Nicholson on 0039 334 359 0700 or nicholson@caritas.va