HANOI (VIETNAM) – Natural disasters in the past two months caused Vietnam 30 trillion dong ($1.3 billion) with regard to economic damage and killed 192 people, while 57 were still missing, authorities said on Wednesday.
The two-month toll went beyond losses for the whole of last year, when disasters killed 132 people and caused 6.2 trillion in damage, official data showed.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong in a government statement, “We embraced nine typhoons and two tropical depressions in just two months, from mid-September to mid-November. Those abnormal weather events cost our country 30 trillion dong.”
“We have to make sure our residents are not homeless, suffering from hunger or lacking fresh water post-typhoon,” Cuong added.
Vietnam’s economic growth is expected to witness a slump to 2%-3% this year after expanding 7.02% in 2019 due to the drastic effect of the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters.
Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline.
A World Bank report said in October that about 11.8 million people in Vietnam’s costal provinces are prone to intense flooding, with 35% of settlements located on crowded and eroding coastlines.