Floods kill at least 58 in south Vietnam\'s Mekong delta

Vietnam\'s Mekong delta provinces have been flooded, causing at least 58 deaths and about 1.5 trillion Vietnamese dong (71.4 million U.S. dollars) in loss as of Monday, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). The transport sector suffered the most with over 930 km of roads damaged and 823 bridges broken; followed by the agricultural sector with rice fields and crops submerged, and over 1,500 km of dykes and irrigation works broken. Accordingly, as of Monday, floods drowned at least two lives in Cai Lay district of Tien Giang province, flooded over 5,000 houses, hundreds of hectares of fish ponds and crops, and destroyed hundreds of kilometers of dykes. Over 6,000 students are off schools due to flooding. Total loss was estimated at about 20 billion Vietnamese dong (roughly 1 million U.S. dollars). Meanwhile, floods in the upstream Dong Thap province and Long Xuyen quadrangle region gradually reduced, with 2-4 cm lower each day, but the water level remained at an emergency level of grade 3. In the downstream areas, floods and tidal flow have inundated many urban quarters.