Heavy flooding during the northern summer, affecting 10 out of the country’s 17 provinces, has underlined the need to strengthen disaster management in Lao PDR. Tropical storm Haima struck central and northern provinces on 24 June with Nock-Ten hitting central and southern areas on 30 and 31 July.

According to the government’s National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) 26 lives were lost, more than 1,000 livestock and 60,000 poultry died, and over $100 million in damages recorded as a result of the flooding caused by the two storms. Many farmers also lost their food stocks and more than 37,000 hectares of rice fields were damaged by the flooding during the critical rice planting season.

Ghulam Sherani, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) specialist for disaster risk management believes the communities affected responded well in the circumstances, “When the emergency struck they quickly mobilized, arranged themselves and divided the roles and responsibilities to respond. However, this could have been much better had they been better prepared and planned beforehand.”

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Photo: Flood affected village in Bolikhamxay province - Eeva Nyyssonen/UN-HABITAT