Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee urges localities to fight drought

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of July 28, the Provincial People's Committee issued an urgent dispatch, announcing the conclusion of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong at the inspection and direction of measures to respond to the drought in the summer-autumn crop of 2016.

On July 25, 2016, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duong, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the inspection and direction of measures to respond to the 2016 Summer - Autumn drought in Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc districts and worked at the Nghi Loc District People's Committee. Attending the inspection and working session were representatives of the leaders of departments, branches and units: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Finance, Department of Planning and Investment, Provincial People's Committee Office, Standing Office of the Provincial Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control, Irrigation Sub-Department, Nam Nghe An Irrigation One Member Co., Ltd., People's Committees of Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc districts.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee inspected the drought situation.

After conducting a field inspection and listening to reports from representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant agencies and units, Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, concluded as follows:

1. Drought and water resources

- In recent times, due to the influence of the low-lying area in the West combined with the foehn effect, Nghe An has experienced widespread heat waves with the highest air temperature during the day commonly ranging from 36 - 39 °C, higher in some places such as Con Cuong 40.5 °C, Vinh City 40.1 °C... It is forecasted that drought and heat waves will likely continue in the coming time.

- Regarding water resources: Most reservoirs in the province have low water levels, currently the lowest water level of reservoirs is - 30% of the design capacity, the highest is = 50% of the design capacity. Water resources on rivers and streams are decreasing rapidly. The water level at the upstream of Nam Dan sluice only reaches 0.6m/MNTK = 1.15m (0.55m lower than the design). Therefore, the situation of water shortage and drought has occurred severely, on a large scale, with the risk of salt intrusion deep into the fields in estuaries and coastal areas.

Drought has seriously affected the production of the Summer-Autumn and Winter-Spring crops: The total planned rice area for the Summer-Autumn and Winter-Spring crops is 94,000 hectares, to date, 87,173.5 hectares have been planted; the unplanted area (due to lack of water): 6,826.5 hectares. Of the 87,173.5 hectares of planted area, 9,914 hectares of rice are severely drought-affected. The area of ​​corn, peanuts and vegetables affected by drought is 3,061.5 hectares, of which the area of ​​vegetables that have died is 716 hectares.

2. The implementation status of recent drought prevention work

In recent times, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, its affiliated units in the agricultural sector and localities in the province have been proactive and have had many creative measures to irrigate most economically to serve production and people's lives.

Many technical solutions have been applied such as alternating irrigation, damming rivers to keep fresh water and prevent salinity, instructing units to install many field pumping stations to make full use of water sources in the area, directing the repair and dredging of irrigation works and preparing a number of projects both immediate and long-term to ensure water sources for the people.

3. Regarding some tasks and solutions in the coming time:

Faced with complicated weather conditions and widespread drought, in order to proactively respond and minimize damage to production and people's lives, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requests Chairmen of People's Committees of districts, cities, and towns, directors of relevant departments, branches and units to properly implement the following contents:

- Continue to strictly implement the contents of Official Dispatch No. 06-CD-TU dated June 21, 2016 of the Provincial Party Committee Secretary on promoting the work of preventing and combating drought and child drowning. Directive No. 04/CT-TTg dated February 4, 2016 of the Prime Minister on urgent measures to prevent and combat drought and saltwater intrusion; Official Dispatch No. 1720/UBND-NN dated March 24, 2016, No. 4612/UBND-NN dated June 29, 2016 of the Provincial People's Committee.

- District People's Committees and irrigation companies: Assign staff to the grassroots to direct and guide farmers in drought prevention, paying special attention to the lives and activities of people in areas suffering from severe drought and lack of domestic water.

- The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development synthesizes the drought situation and difficulties in the whole province, proposes solutions, and reports to the Provincial People's Committee before July 30, 2016; at the same time, advises the Provincial People's Committee to report to the Prime Minister, Ministries and Central branches on the drought situation, direction and response work, and proposals for central support to overcome.

- The Department of Finance, based on the proposal of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, advises the Provincial People's Committee to provide funding to support crop conversion seeds, dredging costs, pump purchases, oil costs, electricity costs to fight drought, installation of field pumps and other urgent costs to fight drought, and reports to the Provincial People's Committee for resolution.

4. Regarding proposals and recommendations from units and localities

- Regarding funding for installing field pumps, drought-resistant fuel, dredging canals to serve drought-resistant work, supporting seeds for crop conversion, oil money, and electricity money for drought-resistant work: assign the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to synthesize data for the whole province, report to the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and specific resolution of each content.

- Regarding the policy of establishing projects proposed to be included in the Construction Investment Plan such as: Expanding Hung Xuan sluice; building Ban bridge pumping station; Building the Southwest pumping station and irrigation canal, Nghi Cong Nam commune; Upgrading and renovating Bi dam, Nghi Cong Bac commune: Assign the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to synthesize and propose to the whole province to request investment policy according to the Construction Investment procedures.

- Regarding long-term measures: Assign the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Planning and Investment and relevant sectors to advise and report to the central government to soon build a project to prevent salinity and keep fresh water on Lam River; build Xuan Hoa pumping station and some other long-term proposals.

PV