Asian Disaster Reduction Center（ADRC）

Period	1999/03
Country or District	Viet Nam
Event Type	Drought
Outline	In northern mountainous and midland provinces and north-central provinces, the 1998 rainy season ended one month earlier than usual. The total amount of rainfall was only 50 - 70 per cent of the annual average. At present, water levels in rivers and streams in the north are 20 - 30 per cent lower than average. Salt water has encroached into rice fields.

Summary
Human Impact	Physical Impact	Others
Reuters 1999/03/24
About 2.3 million people across Vietnam are suffering from food shortages and more than half this number face serious hunger, the official Sai Gon Giai Phong daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.No deaths have been reported from the food shortages.	Vietnam has been hit by dry weather in the past 18 months, cutting output from some key export crops.
OCHA Situation Report No. 1 Mar15
It is estimated that 1.7 million people lack water for domestic use, and in addition, almost 1.4 million people in 15 provinces lack food.	Salt water has encroached into rice fields. In the affected areas, 5,000 hectares of newly planted rice are threatened because of water shortages. If the dry weather persists, the drought area will increase to 15,000 -20,000 ha.	The total amount of rainfall was only 50 - 70 per cent of the annual average. At present, water levels in rivers and streams in the north are 20 - 30 per cent lower than average.
Govt. of Vietnam -Official Report-
		In the mountainous areas in the North and North-Centre of Viet Nam, the rainy season ended onemonth earlier than usual. Rainfall totalled only 50% to 70% of the average amount. Therefore, at the end of the 1998 rainy season, the water levels of reservoirs were low, 5m to 8m below designed water levels; in some reservoirs, water levels even fell below dead storage levels.

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Viet Nam: Drought: 1999/03