Disasters

A man takes soil samples over what used to be a paddy field in Quang Binh Province to test its toxicity, December 1, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Tao. Ho Van Rao’s lush green fields in Quang Tri were buried under more than two feet of boulders, ...

Attapeu province: The Xe-PianXe-Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province has rebuilt a saddle dam at the reservoir after the previous one collapsed two years ago, causing a devastating flood. Project officials told visiting reporters on Wednesday that a new dam had been built not far from ...

Drought, rains, inundation and landslides have cost the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau an estimated over 1 trillion VND (43 million USD) from the outset of the year, according to the provincial steering committee on natural disaster prevention, search and rescue. More than 20,800 households faced a ...

The borrowing is a part of an executive emergency decree empowering the Thailand’s Finance Ministry to seek loans up to one trillion baht ($32 Bln) to combat economic and social problems resulting from COVID-19 . Finance Minister Arkhom Termpitayapaisith and Hideaki Iwasaki, country director for the ...

As a wave of storms drives flooding across Southeast Asia, a community in northern Laos displaced by a hydropower dam says their new homes are no longer safe due to the threat of landslides. Over 12,000 people have been relocated to allow for the construction of seven dams on the ...

Four consecutive typhoons pummeled the Philippines in just a couple of weeks, leaving swathes of destruction in their wake. The most recent one, with the local name “Ulysses” (international name: Vamco) submerged parts of Luzon, giving residents in the capital a painful reminder of the ...

On November 15, Typhoon Vamco struck the coast of central Vietnam with gusts topping 100 kilometers per hour, becoming the latest in a string of storms to hit the country in recent weeks. Following months of harsh drought, the storms have caused widespread flooding and landslides, displacing ...

When devastating floods ruined Sumroeng Sunthonsaeng’s fruit orchards in 2011, he vowed to stay on the land. He changed the direction of his business, focusing on lucrative and prized durians, long famous in the Nonthaburi area, a neighbouring province of Bangkok. Last year, he was eyeing a ...

President Moon Jae-in on Friday held a summit with leaders of Southeast Asia’s Mekong River nations via video links, in which he promised to contribute US$10 million to help provide new coronavirus vaccines to developing nations. “We will contribute $10 million for coronavirus vaccine support to ...

The summit and related meetings, slated for November 12-15, “are the most important activity of ASEAN this year, attracting widespread attention both inside and outside the region,” Nguyen Quoc Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and General Secretary of the National ASEAN 2020 Committee, said ...