Breaking Earth News: VietnamSept 19, 2006
Some 200 people have been marooned by flood waters in Vietnam’s Binh Thuan province following a deluge Saturday night while crops and wells have been badly damaged.
The province’s Me Pu commune in Duc Linh district has no other roads connecting it with the outside except a crossing through a normally shallow stream, Doi. But following the downpour, the 30-meter wide stream is in spate that at 4pm on Monday some 200 people, including 100 children, are stuck in the village.
The district’s Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention planted stakes on the spring’s banks so that they could use pulleys to relay instant noodles to the stranded people.
In nearby Sung Nhon commune 147 hectares of recently-sowed rice fields are submerged under 0.8-1.5 m of floodwaters.
Dozens of water wells have been contaminated.
A week ago five people died and hundreds of houses were damaged after heavy rains and lightning struck the province. Total damage has been estimated at VND300 million (US$18,800).
Deluge in India
INDIA - the unexpected deluge in Barmer district (part of the Great Indian Desert or Thar Desert) not only “killed hundreds and destroyed property worth crores”, conservation of a variety of rare plants in the region is in peril. The waterlogged sandy stretches are squeezing life out of Barmer’s diverse fauna. The flood has also washed away fertile layers of soil and “unidentified” microbes — making the land fallow. The deluge, which broke a two-year drought cycle, occurred from August 21-August 24. Barmer and Jaisalmer received 600 mm of rain in four days, as against an annual average of 200 mm (and even less over the past few years). Thousands of desert-specific plants were destroyed. The water drained the nutrient content of the soil, reducing fertility. Scientists say crops like bajra, guar, moth, moong and vegetable will not be able to grow for a few years. The report has suggested several measures to tide over the catastrophe — like setting up a Germ Plasma Bank, Seed Bank, a nursery of desert plants to meet emergencies and save the gene-pool.
