Hanoi (VNA) –The Government has issued Resolution 76/NQ-CP on natural disaster preventionand climate change adaptation.
Its specific goal by 2025 is reducing 30 percentof human losses caused by natural disasters with similar intensity and scale tothose occurring in 2015-2020.
Authorities at all levels, organisations, andhouseholds across the country will receive full information on naturalcalamities, while training courses will be opened for natural disasterprevention forces to provide them with necessary skills.
According to the resolution, among the generalsolutions to natural disaster prevention are improving the resilience ofinfrastructure, reinforcing and upgrading the river and sea dyke systems aswell as water reservoirs and storm shelters, and improving water drainage.
At the same time, flooding prevention projectsin big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will be implemented effectively,in addition to the national target programme on climate change adaptation andgreen growth.
Investment should be poured into modernisationof natural disaster forecasting and monitoring systems in concentratedresidential areas and key socio-economic regions.
The resolution also specifies key measures foreach region. In the northern andnorth-central mountainous regions, it is necessary to identify high risk areasof landslides and flash floods to take prompt prevention measures to mitigatehuman losses and ensure sustainable livelihoods for locals.
The northern and north-central delta regionsshould ensure safety of dykes and strictly manage the flood prevention, dykeconstruction and land use planning schemes.
The northern and central coastal regions will focuson raising the capacity to cope with floods and typhoons and buildingintegrated flood management plans for river basins.
The Central Highlands region will build water supplyand storage facilities to serve local daily activities and strengthen supervisionof water resources and effective operation of irrigation systems for freshwater reserves, while promoting the use of advanced irrigation solutions tosaving water for rice and terrestrial crops.
The Mekong Delta is recommended to implementeffectively the Government’s Resolution No.120/NQ-CP dated November 17, 2017 onsustainable and climate-resilient development of the region.
Vietnam is one of the five countries hardest hitby natural disasters. Over the past two decades,natural disasters left over 400 people dead and missing each year,caused economic losses equal to about 1-1.5 percent of GDP, and affectedpeople’s living environment and conditions, as well as socio-economicactivities and sustainable development of the country.
In 2017, a record number of 16 typhoons and fourlow pressures occurred in the East Sea. The storms claimed the livesof 386 people in the year, damaged more than 600,000 houses and caused economiclosses of about 60 trillion VND (2.64 billion USD), with the worst typhoonsbeing Doksuri and Damrey.-VNA