Hung Nhan with the plan of "living with floods"
Hung Nhan is a commune located outside the dike of Hung Nguyen district, and every year the commune has to endure 2-4 floods. For generations, people here have been trying to find a way to live with floods. With the support of superiors and the efforts of the Party, government and people, that dream is becoming a reality.
Hung Nhan is a commune located outside the dike of Hung Nguyen district, and every year the commune has to endure 2-4 floods. For generations, people here have been trying to find a way to live with floods. With the support of superiors and the efforts of the Party, government and people, that dream is becoming a reality.
Under the hot sun of the first day of summer, together with Mr. Nguyen Kim Phoi, deputy head of the district agricultural department, we went to Hung Nhan. Standing out in the commune committee's campus was a two-story house painted in blue.
This is the first community flood shelter in the province, built with 70% of the capital from the Central Disaster Prevention Fund, 20% from the provincial budget and 10% from the commune's counterpart capital. With a total cost of 2.7 billion VND. Commune Chairman Nguyen Cong Hoan took us to visit the project. The house has 2 floors, each floor is 400 m2.2The ground floor has 3 rooms, one of which is used to treat flood victims.
Community flood shelter in Hung Nhan (Hung Nguyen).
The upper floor is a hall, inside the house is a kitchen, a fresh water tank, tables and chairs for people to rest when evacuating from floods. According to the design, the house has enough space for 400 evacuees. In the commune's flood prevention plan this year, this is the place to evacuate the elderly and children during storms and floods. Together with the commune health station, the school and community house will reduce the pressure of evacuating people during storms and floods, helping people to stay and live with the floods.
According to Mr. Hoan, as a commune outside the dike, the awareness of living with floods has formed in each resident. Depending on economic conditions, that idea is expressed in different forms. Then he gave an example: In the past, when the economy was still difficult, the people of Hung Nhan knew how to build sandbanks to save themselves. Each hamlet chose a high land position, built about 2m around it and firmly planted grass. Each sandbank was 150 - 200m wide.2storing buffalo and cows for the whole hamlet. Until now, hamlet 1 still has 1 islet. After the 90s, when the economy developed, people had the conditions to build solid houses, the form of flood shelter was born.
Depending on economic conditions, while building a house, people combine building a high and wide hut 10-15m.2There are stairs for cows and buffaloes to go up and down. This is where straw, rice, cattle and poultry are stored when the flood comes. The height of the hut is designed based on the historical flood peak of 1978-1988 plus 1 meter. In 2005, the construction of self-rescue huts was included in the resolution of the Commune Party Committee. Up to now, 55% of households in the whole commune have self-rescue huts.
In 2011, the commune developed a project to live with floods. The project was approved by the district and submitted to the province, and the province is planning to submit it to the Central Government for funding to implement it, considering it a model to gain experience for implementation in communes in flood areas. According to the project, community cultural houses in hamlets will be upgraded to 2 solid floors so that when the level 2 alarm is raised, people can be evacuated. Management and organization of activities are assigned to organizations such as the Youth Union, Women's Union, Veterans Union, etc.
This approach will reduce the pressure of moving people far away. Along with the construction of infrastructure, the program to train flood-coping skills for each household is also focused on. From the recommendation to store water, rice and food to traveling during the rainy season, thorough training is also provided. To minimize accidents, the electrical system in the commune area is being upgraded from WB4 funding. The electrical system in each house also has specific regulations: the socket must be installed high to avoid flooding and electric leakage, for houses with 2 floors or more, there must be 2 circuit breakers, cutting off the power as the water rises.
The program of living with floods is also shown in the management plan of the commune government. Specific tasks are arranged according to rising water levels, evacuation of livestock and poultry, evacuation of people and assets are arranged according to each water level...
With the support of all levels and sectors, along with the experience of the people and the close leadership of the government, Hung Nhan's plan to live with floods will yield results in the upcoming flood season - an experience to be replicated in localities in flood-affected areas.
Cong Sang
