Hundreds gather to reinforce embankments as heavy rains flood Hanoi outskirts

At 5 a.m., floodwater from a forest in Hoa Binh Province rushed towards the Dong Long bank. Several areas on the bank, which spans 1 km and connects Quoc Oai with Hoa Binh’s Luong Son District, were submerged, threatening 400 ha of fields, farms and residential areas of Dong Yen and Hoa Thach communes.

Risks of embankment breakage spurred the People’s Committee of Dong Yen Commune to call for people to come to the bank to reinforce it. By 7 a.m., around 100 people were present at the site to reinforce the bank with bags of soil.

 

 

Hundreds gather to reinforce embankments as heavy rains flood Hanoi outskirts

Hối hả đắp đê ngăn lụt mở rộng ở ngoại thành Hà Nội

The Committee said if floodwater couldn’t be stopped at the bank, hundreds of households and farms would be submerged. The neighboring Can Huu Ke Commune has already been flooded, and areas in Chuong My and Quoc Oai districts saw rain levels of over 140 mm on Saturday night.

In Nam Phuong Tien Commune, floods have become severe as hundreds of families have been isolated by floodwater, forcing them to get around using boats. On Sunday morning, dozens of people waited for boats to transport people and food into villages.

Besides Nam Phuong Tien, Chuong My District saw 11 communes and their 27 villages being flooded. Over 5.5 km worth of embankments in the area have been submerged, and over 160 km of roads were flooded.

Over 1,600 ha of crops and fruit trees have been flooded, and around 182,000 cattle and poultry have been affected.

Northern Vietnam is expected to experience more severe downpours in the last days of July due to the impacts of a low-pressure area, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. There will be risk of erosion in mountainous areas, and floods in the plains.