Floods, whirlwinds and land slides have killed 48 people, including 34 children in Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta since the rainy season started in August, an official of the Central Steering Committee on Flood and Storm Prevention told Xinhua on Tuesday.

As of Monday, floods also inundated over 25,400 houses and 360 schools, and destroyed more than 10,000 hectares of rice fields and orchards, over 1,000 hectares of aquaculture ponds and many road sections, said vice head of the committee's office Do Ngoc Thien.

The worst affected provinces include Dong Thap, An Giang, Long An and Kien Giang, he said, noting that levels of floodwater in the upper stream of the Mekong River are receding.

Local scientists predict that Vietnam will experience more complicated climatic changes in the next few years such as higher temperature, rainfall and sea level, and stronger storms. In 2010,many gales are forecast to strike the country's coastal areas, especially in the northern and central regions.

Natural disasters, since 1991, has killed around 9,000 people and caused total property losses of nearly US$4 billion in Vietnam, according to the committee's statistics.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2004)