Drought and saltwater intrusion have caused damage worth more than VND9 trillion (US$405 million) to Central Highlands, south central and southern provinces as of the end of April.

According to the National Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention, nearly 475,000 households in these areas are short of clean water due to double disasters.

Drought and saltwater intrusion have also done damage to nearly 248,000 hectares of rice, 129,000 hectares of industrial-use plants, 5,000 hectares of aquaculture, 52,000 hectares of fruit trees and 19,000 hectares of other plants.

In the southern region, a total of 23,000 hectares have been rendered completely unfit for farming.

It is forecast that if the drought continues, farmers will have to stop cultivating rice on 57,000 hectares in the summer-autumn crop.

Since late 2015, more than 208,000 hectares of rice have been damaged in the Mekong River Delta.

Last month at a conference jointly held by the UN and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam sent an urgent appeal to the international community asking for US$48.5 million to deal with the disasters.

Source: Nhan dan