Lessons after the flood

(Baonghean) - The consecutive major floods in June and July 2011 left extremely serious consequences for the poor mountainous district of Ky Son. Floods piled on floods, poverty piled on poverty. Nearly a year has passed, but the consequences of the floods are still there, and it is truly a lesson in flood prevention for this mountainous district...

We visited the family of Mr. Vi Van Tung, in Cau Tam village, Ta Ca commune. Currently, his family of 10 people are living in a makeshift house, less than 15 square meters. The historic flood in June 2011 submerged his family's house and land. The land on which his family built the house is also temporarily borrowed from the village's Cultural House. The house is cramped, with nothing of value except 3 beds. His 2 eldest daughters have to sleep there because they have no place to stay. In just a moment, the family's lifelong efforts were submerged in the flood...

The flood in June 2011 caused great destruction in the mountainous district of Ky Son. With the characteristics of steep mountainous terrain, floods in mountainous areas such as Ky Son are often flash floods, water rises quickly, flows rapidly, and has great destructive power. Flash floods often lead to very dangerous landslides.

During the flood, although the authorities at all levels mobilized all forces to help the people, due to the lack of rescue equipment and the lack of experience of the people, the response work still encountered many obstacles. When the flood peaked, the means of transportation and communication were cut off, making direction even more difficult. Lacking manpower and equipment, people "each took care of themselves" in their own way.

After the great damage, people began to think more about the causes of floods: cutting down protective forests in the headwaters, mining gold, encroaching on rivers to build roads causing changes in the flow... However, there is another cause that cannot be ignored. That is the subjective mentality, the low capacity to respond to storms and floods of the people. Living in a mountainous district with the risk of flash floods, people are confused when the flood comes. Although there have been warnings in advance, many households still linger and do not proactively evacuate, the water is up to the floor of the house but they still subjectively think that the water will not rise further. That has raised the issue of improving the ability to adapt to flood prevention for the people. Because in fact, for a long time in Ky Son, there has not been any flood prevention project implemented systematically, the government and people have also rarely practiced in similar situations.

The People's Committee of Ky Son district has taken more active and drastic measures to prevent illegal deforestation and gold mining. The river embankment project running along the town has also been implemented to ensure long-term safety. Ky Son has started to find a new safe location to relocate households along the river, areas affected by floods. Before this year's flood season, authorities at all levels have come up with a plan: to proactively grasp information on weather developments to promptly direct flood and storm prevention work; continue to promote propaganda among the people about plans to prevent and mitigate natural disasters, storms and floods, and completely overcome subjectivity.

Currently, Ky Son has been making efforts to overcome the consequences of the historic flood in 2011, by quickly rebuilding infrastructure works to serve people's lives, supporting people's production and daily life. However, if the problem of natural disaster prevention is not solved soon, overcoming the consequences of storms and floods is like building a house of sand in front of the waves.

Phan Tam