Hundreds of houses and several hectares of vegetable and rice crops in the northern mountainous provinces of Son La were reportedly damaged by heavy rain, hail and thunderstorms April 12 (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong wants countrywideimprovements in developing plans to respond to natural disasters.
Cuong, who is head of the Central SteeringCommittee on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, said natural disastershave become extreme since the beginning of this year, causing losses formany regions. Drought has occurred across the country and saline intrusion hasbeen at an unprecedented level in the Mekong Delta.
Heavy rain, together with thunderstormsand hail, have occurred more often in northern mountainous regions, the RedRiver Delta and the Central Highlands, seriously damaging rice andvegetable crops.
For example, downpours from April 12-14 inthe central coastal provinces have destroyed 19,500ha of rice.
The minister said in the remaining months of2020, the climate situation is likely to be unpredictable.
According to the National Centre forHydro-Meteorological Forecasting, this year's stormy season on the East Seawill begin later than previous years, with about 13 tropical storms anddepressions expected. Of these, up to six are to make landfall on the mainland.Heavy rainfall and floods might occur after prolonged drought recorded in 2006,2010 and 2016.
Cuong asked agencies and disaster preventionand control sub-committees in localities to make preparations for disasterresponse, including measures to ensure residents’ safety, protect dykes, dams,and reservoirs.
It is necessary to improve capacity,strengthen facilities and equipment for all forces.
They are required to be always ready andpromptly handle situations that may occur in response to natural disasters inthe most effective way.
Localities should take the initiative in carryingout plans to secure safety for local residents in areas prone to landslides andflash floods, he said.
Cuong asked localities to keep a close watchon the operation of reservoirs as well as irrigation systems, especially thoseat high risk.
It is essential to step up communications andheighten the responsibility of the community for disaster and incident responsewhile enhancing preventive measures to minimise tragic losses.
The minister said a national conferencewould be held to review disaster prevention and control in 2019, the firstmonths of this year and set tasks for the remaining months of 2020.
Preparations for the meeting were underway,however, he said the date for the meeting had not yet been decideddue to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A report from the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development showed that Vietnam suffered fewer storms in 2019 than in theprevious year and losses also fell to a record low.
Natural disasters, mainly flooding, tropicalstorms and landslides, left 133 people dead or missing last year, a decrease of40 per cent compared with 2018’s figure.
Only eight tropical storms and four tropicaldepressions hit the country last year, compared with 13 storms and depressionsin the previous year, leaving 181 dead and 31 missing.
The damage is estimated at around 7 trillionVND (297.6 million USD), a third of 2018’s figure of 20 trillion VND (850.3million USD)./.
VNA
