Let's think beyond instant noodles when providing disaster relief

In front of him is a box of hot rice. The chopsticks he picks up fall immediately since he is hungry, cold and shivering, and can barely hold them.

A volunteer quickly replaces the chopsticks with a plastic spoon.

He tremblingly scoops up the food, but the grains of rice keep spilling out, and he has to seek assistance from the volunteer.

 

 

Let's think beyond instant noodles when providing disaster relief

A man has first hot meal in floods

I offer him a bottle of water, but he shakes his head, saying: "Eat first, drinking now might make me choke."

While there were many boxes with relief supplies lying in the boat in Hoa Xuan Commune, Dak Lak Province, that man only asked for a hot meal to eat immediately.

Not far away from there, villagers in Hamlet 5 in Hoa Vinh Commune recount the night floodwaters rose rapidly.

As the water surged over the yard and almost reached their chests, Huynh Duong, a landlord, stood by the door calling neighbors to rush over to his boarding house and take shelter.

Villagers banged pots and pans to alert each other to run toward that house, as it was the only one that still rose above the water at that time.

Very soon, the upper floor of the house was crammed with the elderly, children, pregnant women, and other adults.

No one managed to bring anything except the clothes they were wearing.

There were only 10 kilograms of rice, three pots, and a gas stove in the boarding house.

On the first night, seeing the shortage of rice, Hai Diep, the owner of a rice noodle stall across the street, insisted on wading back home to get 60 kilograms of noodles.

But the others held her back, telling her not go into the water for fear the strong current could sweep her away.

Eventually, the group ate rice with salt, each person had just half a bowl to save the rice for the next day.

As the water reached rooftops on Nov. 19, Dak Lak locals held on together, sitting on top of the roofs, enduring the cold and hunger. The electricity was cut off and the phone signal had died.

A woman in Hoa Xuan Commune of Dak Lak Province waits for rescue amid widespread flooding on Nov. 20, 2025. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Bang

As the water started receding, every time they heard the sound of a canoe with rescue teams, they would hold out baskets, basins and even conical hats.

The repeated calls were for "a little rice, cold medicine, sanitary pads, clean water..." Hien of Hoa Vinh Commune asked for sanitary pads for her teen daughter who was on her period.

One small boy asked for a bottle of water because he had been drinking water draining from the roof for many days.

A woman asked if there was any medicine as her son had a fever since the night before.

An elderly couple taking shelter on the attic of their flooded house in Dong village asked for rice and some medicines.

These requests brought me to my senses.

Before entering the flooded area as a volunteer, I thought instant noodles were easy to carry, biscuits were easy to buy and clothes were easy to collect. But sanitary pads, medicines for cold, drinking water, and plastic spoons – I hadn't paid attention to them.

The people in the flood clearly stated what they needed by the fourth day of the floods, repeating four crucial items: rice, drinking water, medicines, and sanitary products.

For the first three days they could not cook or light a fire. The most necessary items were drinking water, pre-cooked rice and other foods that could be eaten immediately, fever and pain medicines, and a few basic sanitary items.

Instant noodles were only suitable when there was clean water and a stove, which many homes lacked. Eating raw noodles both upset the stomach and increased thirst.

From the fourth day onwards rescue boats could reach virtually everyone.

By then people had already survived days of lack of nutrition and dehydration, and their health was declining rapidly. They were in need of hot meals, digestive and respiratory medicines, clean water, and dry blankets.

From the eighth day onwards the floods gradually receded. The ground was covered in mud, and wells were contaminated. Dead cattle, chickens and pigs washed up against the walls of houses.

People, having been nourished, will by then turn their attention to cleaning up their living spaces.

They would need shovels, garbage bags, brooms, lime powder to sprinkle on the floor, disinfectant solutions, water filters, clean clothes, and fresh food.

When I entered a flooded village in Hoa Thinh Commune after the water had fallen to calf depth, the one item many families asked for was not food but a stick to push chunks of trash onto the main road: trash that included mud, nylon, rotten leaves, animal waste, and chicken carcasses.

Without one, they had to do it with their bare hands.

People in Hoa Thinh are used to floods, though this year it has been extreme.

One resident recalled that during floods one year, two weeks after the water had fully receded and yards were dry, mud was piled up at the edge of the road and people had already begun washing their floors and scrubbing walls, some relief teams continued to bring cartons of instant noodles.

The villagers accepted them all and quietly dumped them in a corner.

No one dared complain because they feared upsetting the donors and being labeled as being "finicky."

But they wished they could exchange those cartons for sanitation equipment.

What is happening in Dak Lak Province, and in areas across the central region that are frequently flooded, shows that emergency relief plans should be divided into three phases.

Depending on the severity of the disaster, the first three days are for survival, days four to seven are for recovering strength and the eighth day onwards is for rebuilding.

If aid does not align with these three stages, victims will continue to hold out their baskets asking for some basic items even as vehicles carrying relief supplies leave them with things they do not need.

The solution for flood aid lies not in the quantity of goods brought in, but in correctly meeting the needs of each of those three stages.

Local authorities and volunteer groups can establish a three-stage needs chart, clearly spelling out when appealing for donations what stage the region is in, what is needed and what should not be on the list.

Donors will be less confused, volunteers will not buy the wrong things, and flood victims will get exactly what they are waiting for.

When the water recedes and the first layer of mud dries, flood-hit residents will rebuild their lives from scratch and with great trepidation.

If the aid dovetails with the recovery efforts, they will not be alone in the process of rebuilding their lives.