Typhoon Yagi is the largest storm in Asia this year, with wind speeds exceeding 120 km/h. For these past few weeks, Typhoon Yagi has been ravaging through Southeast Asia, leaving hundreds dead or misplaced. At least 33 people have died in Thailand and dozens more have died across Southern China, Laos, and Cambodia. Perhaps hit the hardest though, was Vietnam.
In Vietnam alone, over 260 people have died and 820 are still injured due to the storm. Moreover, there have been 141,469 houses damaged and another 400,000 without proper access to safe water as a result of the destruction of the typhoon. There are 5.5 million children that are still living in these affected areas, and 805 schools have been closed down due to unsafe conditions.
The mountainous Northern Vietnam, where the typhoon most heavily affected, is heavily reliant on the agriculture industry, especially on rice farming, which accounts for nearly one third of all Vietnamese agriculture. Due to the typhoon, agricultural land has been ravaged, leaving millions without a source of income.
Agriculture is not the only industry that has been hit, however. Another major Vietnamese industry is the production industry. The storm not only tore through agricultural land but also factories and trade routes in Northern Vietnam. One of these incidents was when the collapse of the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province which led to 13 people missing, as 10 cars and trucks along with 2 motorbikes fell in with the bridge.
As a country whose main industries are agriculture and production, natural disasters like these are likely to heavily impact the Vietnamese economy. Agriculture is highly vulnerable, especially in mountainous regions, which are usually prone to flash floods. Furthermore, Vietnam’s coastal location will put it in more danger to flooding. Especially as global warming causes ocean levels to rise, larger typhoons will form, leading to even more detrimental impacts on high risk countries.
In order to slow down the impacts of global warming on their economy, Vietnam will need to pivot from agriculture to other industries in order to protect their workers. In a country where one third of the population works in agriculture, any sort of damage would largely impact the livelihoods of Vietnamese workers. Moreover, infrastructure must be improved so that storms do not halt the production and exports of products. This will need to come with the decrease in unskilled labor which dominates nearly three quarters of the total labor force of the country. This would decrease the reliance on agricultural exports and increase the production of other capital which may be less prone to destruction from natural disasters like storms.
Written by Vi Lam Dinh
