Jul 9, 2010, 6:48 GMT
Hanoi - A heat wave settled over north and central Vietnam since March was affecting agriculture, power generation and health, officials said Friday.
Over a third of the central region's rice crops had failed, said Bui Ba Bong, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, and hydroelectric dams were running dry.
Temperatures in the north and centre of the country reached 41 degrees Celsius in the shade, according to the National Hydro-meteorological Forecast Centre.
'Vietnam is experiencing the hottest weather since 1949,' said centre director Bui Minh Tang. 'The record temperature was 40.4 degree in the shade in 1949.'
Bong said the draught had destroyed about 100,000 of the 254,000 hectares of rice fields planted in the central provinces this year, with losses estimated at 2.5 trillion dong (135 million dollars).
A further 100,000 hectares had not been cultivated in the region due to water shortages.
If measures are not taken in time, losses could reach between 5 and 6 trillion dong, he warned.
Power cuts were frequent, as the central region's hydroelectric reservoirs were drying up, said Dao Van Hung, chairman of the Electricity of Vietnam Group.
The state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre on Friday quoted Vu Duc Giang, chief executive officer of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, as saying power cuts had caused a loss of 300 million dollars to his group.
The heat has led to a sharp increase in hospitalizations, in particular among the aged and the very young, state-run Vietnam News reported.
'Doctors at the National Paediatrics Hospital are treating between 1,800-2,000 children each day, almost double a normal day's figure,' Vietnam News quoted Nguyen Thanh Liem, director of the hospital, as saying.
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