Landslide danger in rainy and stormy season

Fearful when the rainy season comes

For the past 2 years, Ms. Le Thi Quy, Hamlet 2, Quang Son Commune (Do Luong District) has always lived in fear every time the rainy and stormy season comes. In August 2020, after a heavy rain, the water flowing down the hill was red, people went up to check and discovered a 20m long landslide, nearly 3m subsidence with large rocks on Tho Bui Mountain.

Since then, the safety of her family and 13 households living at the foot of the mountain has been threatened every day, especially when the rainy and stormy season comes.

At the foot of Tho Bui mountain, there are currently 13 households living in fear when the rainy season comes. Photo: Phu Huong

Mrs. Quy said: “Even before the storm, whenever it rains, I bring a raincoat and run back to the lower hamlet to ask to stay at a neighbor’s house. Only after the rain stops for a whole day do I dare to go back. The scariest thing is the rocks as big as cars. If they slide down, we won’t have time to react. Not only my house, but the whole neighborhood has toevacuation. Property and cattle cannot be brought along, men and young people do not dare to leave or stay in the house for fear of danger. They are very worried about staying, but even if they are arranged to live elsewhere, it is difficult because they do not have money to build a new house, the land is too small to dry rice or grow vegetables.

Ms. Quy talks about the times she had to "evacuate" during heavy rain. Photo: Phu Huong

Mr. Pham Hong Son - Vice Chairman of Quang Son Commune People's Committee said that in the past, whenever there was a storm, Quang Son Commune only had to focus on the flooded area of ​​Tan Thang, but for the past 2 years, since the appearance of a large crack on the mountain, the commune had to disperse its forces, dividing them into 2 places to take care of 13 households living at the foot of the mountain. When the rainy season comes, we warn households about the risk of landslides so that people can proactively take precautions, prepare conditions, propagate, and help evacuate people to a safe place when there is prolonged rain. At the same time, the commune's militia and self-defense team organizes 24/24h duty tohandling the situationtimely support to ensure the safety of people's lives and property.

In the past two years, although there were not many storms, Quang Son commune had to evacuate people twice in 2020 and 2021. If water seeps into the ground, it is very easy to cause landslides, burying households at the foot of the mountain. The commune hopes to create conditions to reduce the height of the mountain to reduce the impact and risk of subsidence, because the relocation plan is not very feasible, when 13 households with 57 people is quite large.

In Dien Chau, every time there is a storm of level 12 or higher, due to the impact of rising sea levels and high tides, the district has to evacuate about 1,200 households from the two communes of Dien Ngoc and Dien Van.

Mr. Le The Hieu - Head of the District's Agriculture Department said: These are estuarine areas, low-lying areas, located outside the dike system to prevent saltwater intrusion and retain freshwater, so they have to live with storms and floods. When the storm is less than level 12, only propaganda and forced relocation of areas outside the dike such as Hon Cau area of ​​Dien Hai commune and Dien Thanh beach to the area inside the dike, with about 350 households. These are households mainly doing tourism business and some aquaculture outside the dike, because Dien Chau's sea dike system can withstand strong storms of level 10 to level 12. Another concern is that there are also some landslides in mountainous communes such as Dien Phu, Dien Loc and Dien Loi.

In recent years, Nghe An has focused on upgrading sea dykes and improving disaster prevention capacity. Photo: Phu Huong Document

“The most dangerous thing is that in Dien Loi commune, a deep hole has appeared since 2018. Every time there is a storm, 3/4 of the mountain will easily collapse, and more than 100 households living right at the foot of the mountain in some hamlets of Dien Phu and Dien Loi communes will be affected and in danger. Currently, we are assigning the communes to regularly monitor and have plans to relocate and evacuate if there is a risk of subsidence. In the long term, the district has asked the province for a plan to resettle, and relocate more than 100 households of Dien Phu commune to a new place to live,” said Mr. Le The Hieu.

Need long term solution

In recent years, the province has been affected by many types of natural disasters such as storms, tropical depressions, floods, inundations, subsidence, landslides, whirlwinds, droughts, hail, causing great damage not only to agricultural production, but also to houses, properties, infrastructure of people and the State, especially subsidence and landslides, which pose many potential risks to people's lives and property safety.

According to statistics from the Standing Office of the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, from many sources and efforts of localities, Nghe An has handled and overcome some points. However, that number is not significant.

Just through natural disasters from 2020 to now, the whole province has up to 169 locations and areas that have experienced or are at risk of subsidence and landslides on mountains and river banks, affecting 3,064 households, with 12,283 people and infrastructure.

Of these, 141 locations and areas were affected by landslides, affecting 5,914 people; 28 locations and areas were affected by riverbank and stream landslides, affecting 6,369 people living in the area; the rest affected housing and infrastructure.

The biggest difficulty now is that most of the landslides and subsidence sites are located in mountainous areas, where people’s lives are still difficult, so it is very difficult to relocate to a new place. Meanwhile, the annual funding for overcoming the consequences of storms and floods is not much, so it is not enough to relocate thousands of affected households.

The rainy and stormy season is approaching, according to Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong - Head of the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention, Provincial Irrigation Department, to ensurelife safety, people's assets, in locations that have subsidence, landslides or are at risk of subsidence, landslides, local authorities of districts must prepare plans and deploy evacuation of people from affected areas when adverse weather occurs.

Currently, in Nghe An province, there are 141 landslide locations and areas, affecting 5,914 people. Photo: Phu Huong

At the same time, regularly monitor the development of subsidence and landslides, especially during natural disasters, post warning signs and restrict or prohibit people and vehicles from passing through dangerous areas, and evacuate high-risk households. For locations where subsidence and landslides occur in a narrow range and on a small scale that do not affect households, people and local authorities should arrange and balance resources to overcome them, in order to ensure the safety of people and infrastructure.

However, to completely handle landslides, ensure safety for people and affected infrastructure with structural and non-structural solutions to prevent landslides, Nghe An needs a large amount of capital.

We have recommended that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development propose and submit to the province structural and non-structural measures; it is possible to use socialized resources to handle small landslides. If the landslides are large, it is possible to relocate people in a mixed manner or to relocate them completely to a new place.

After review, in Nghe An, it is necessary to relocate 512 households with 2,506 people in a centralized manner; 94 households with 375 people in a mixed housing arrangement and 2,233 households with 8,504 people in a local area. The estimated cost is more than 1,168 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong - Head of Disaster Prevention Department, Provincial Irrigation Department