Vietnam flood toll 258; emergency rice approved

HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters) -- With flood deaths in Vietnam rising relentlessly, the International Red Cross said on Wednesday it plans emergency rice supplies for hundreds of thousands of victims, while the Australian Air Force will airlift blankets.

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A dissident Buddhist monk jailed in the past for unauthorized aid efforts vowed to do his part for the flood-hit Mekong Delta this Friday by distributing parcels, but is likely to be stopped by Vietnam's communist authorities.

John Geoghegan, chief delegate of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, estimated four million people had been affected by the floods in eight Delta provinces.

Flood deaths over the past month hit 258 on Wednesday, including 205 children, provincial officials said.

While flood waters have receded steadily in the upstream Delta in the past week, it is likely to be late-November before they subside fully and concerns have risen about disease.

"Farmers need medicines for cholera, for dengue and also for skin problems," said an official in Dong Thap, one of the worst-hit provinces.

The Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper said that while two million people needed cholera vaccinations, the Health Ministry had supplied only 300,000 doses and was calling on the government to spend six billion dong ($430,000) for more.

Floods hit Hanoi

In recent days, waters have reached three outlying districts of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's biggest population concentration.

And on Wednesday in Hanoi, 1,730 km (1,000 miles) north, the rush hour was worsened by flash floods caused by torrential rains that periodically hit the capital.

Relief officials said that while city flooding might cause inconvenience, the serious problems were in the countryside.

Geoghegan said the Red Cross planned to start distributing long-term rice supplies next week to 38,000 Delta families, or more than 200,000 people.

As part of the multi-million dollar international relief effort, a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 will fly in blankets on Sunday, said Australian Defense Attache Colonel Gary Hogan.

Geoghegan said up to 35,000 families, or some 175,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes in the Delta since the worst of the floods struck early this month. Some 150,000 others were considered to be critically in need of assistance.

Lao Dong quoted an Agriculture Ministry official as saying farmers in the affected provinces would plant their main rice crop up to a month later than usual. He said the region was short of 180,000 tonnes of seedlings as farmers had been forced to eat their best grain or had it ruined.

A statement from the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau said dissident monk Thich Quang Do had vowed to lead 50 followers from his Ho Chi Minh City monastery on Friday to challenge government control of aid distribution.

The group has complained that last month police blocked it from distributing aid in the Delta on the grounds that relief supplies must be channeled through government-approved bodies.

Do, deputy head of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and another Buddhist were jailed for four years for attempting a similar mission in 1994. He is unlikely to be allowed to leave his heavily policed monastery this time.

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