Quy Chau flood epicenter - the hardship of restoring production and long-term livelihoods
(Baonghean.vn) - Nearly a month after the historic flood, Quy Chau land still has many worries. The damage recovery work has only stopped at ensuring the daily life and livelihood of the people after the flood, while production and livelihood of the people in the long term are still difficult.
LOST PRODUCTION LAND, CONSTRUCTION WORKS IN DISTURBANCE
Back to the districtQuy ChauAfter nearly a month of the historic flood, the roads and houses of the people have faded away from the mud. Taking advantage of the sunny days, people have brought clothes, books, household items, etc. to dry in the yard and on the road, hoping to continue using them. The shops repairing electronics, refrigeration, motorbikes, etc. are always full of customers.
However, the damage recovery work is currently only at the level of stabilizing people's lives, supporting food and medicine for people after the flood. The current concern is the loss of productive land, irrigation and traffic works are still in disarray, people's cultivation cannot be implemented, and the risk of abandoning crops is present.
In Chau Hanh commune - one of the most severely damaged localities in Quy Chau district, many local irrigation works and roads are still under layers of soil and rock.
For example, the Khe Tut spillway in Minh Chau village, Chau Hanh commune was built in 2008 to provide irrigation water for the rice fields of Minh Chau village.floodRecently, the Khe Tut spillway was completely damaged, the entire ditch and spillway of the project were broken, many sections of the water channel were broken and drifted along the streams. Currently, the Khe Tut spillway is no longer able to store water for production, therefore, dozens of hectares of land of the people will likely have to be left fallow for the next crop.
Not far away, many irrigation works in Chau Hanh commune such as Khe Xen and Khe Tu dams, Minh Tien and Thuan Lap canals were also destroyed and swept away by floods... estimated damage of more than 8 billion VND.
The most difficult problem currently in Quy Chau district is that the fields have been buried with a thickness of 0.5 to 1 meter, covered with a layer of sand and rock, so it is impossible to cultivate without timely reclamation measures.
Mr. Vi Van Dien - a resident of Chau Thang commune sadly said: His family has 4,000 m2Floods have caused 3,000 m of rice fields to be flooded.2buried by soil and rocks nearly 1 meter deep. "Now, if we want to convert it into a field, we have to hire an excavator to work for many days. The excavator costs 600,000 VND/hour, which is tens of millions of VND. Where will the family get the money? But if we don't convert the field, the family will not have fields to produce rice to eat... so the family has not been able to think of any other way..."
One of the current difficulties is that the volume of buried production land is too large, while human resources are not enough, renting machinery at this time is very difficult, because the means are also being mobilized to overcome the damage. In addition, the cost of renting machinery is not cheap, which is also an obstacle for the locality and people in overcoming.
According to statistics of Quy Chau district,historic floodscaused serious consequences in the area, with thousands of houses deeply flooded, many traffic routes were eroded and cut off such as: National Highway 48A, Provincial Road 544, National Highway 48D. The flood also killed 776 livestock, 23,032 poultry; the summer-autumn rice area was damaged: 850.48 hectares; the annual crop area was flooded and broken: 234.45 hectares... The total damage is estimated at more than 177 billion VND, this figure is more than 6.5 times the total budget revenue of the whole district in 2022 (in 2022, Quy Chau district collected 27 billion VND in budget).
Quy Chau district is a difficult area, people mainly produce agriculture, in the recent flood, the agricultural sector suffered the most damage. Meanwhile, the cost to overcome is very large, therefore, for now, the locality is only focusing on temporary restoration and supporting some weak points, it is very difficult to implement simultaneously.
JOIN HANDS TO REMEDY THE DAMAGE
SAfter the flood, departments, branches, localities, philanthropists... joined hands to support the people of Quy Chau district to overcome the damage. According to statistics of the Fatherland Front Committee of Quy Chau district, the amount of money donated and supported the locality after the recent flood is now more than 5 billion VND, in addition, there are many items such as rice, medicine, clothes, books... This is a valuable source of encouragement for the people to soon stabilize their lives.
Mr. Vo Thai Tinh - Chairman of Tan Lac Town People's Committee said: After the flood receded, the locality mobilized maximum human and material resources to overcome the damage. However, there were many difficulties such as the large amount of waste generated, polluted clean water sources, damaged raw materials in craft villages, etc. Therefore, the locality focused on treating the water environment, ensuring clean water for daily life for people as well as disease prevention. At the same time, contacting environmental companies to support vehicles to collect and transport garbage after households gathered garbage to designated places, to ensure environmental sanitation after the flood. The locality also supported households that suffered heavy damage, encouraged people to stabilize their lives soon, and supported students with books, clothes, etc. so that they could return to school.
Regarding agricultural production, the remedial work is assessed by Quy Chau district as very difficult due to the large cost. Not only is the production land lost due to being buried, but currently, the land area along the river banks, streams and creeks is also being eroded strongly, each piece is drifting away with the water.
In the immediate future, Quy Chau district has directed localities to mobilize the entire population to work on irrigation on October 16, focusing on repairing damaged canals and structures that can be temporarily handled, mobilizing people to dredge and temporarily repair irrigation systems to have water for production. For the rice fields that have not yet reached the harvest time and have fallen over but can still grow, people have focused on building rice, tying them into bundles to avoid rice grains from being soaked in water, and draining water to avoid flooding. However, the possibility of food shortages in the coming time for people in Quy Chau district is entirely possible when this rice crop has been buried, while it is unknown when the next crop will be planted.
In the immediate future, the district will support the people with plants and breeds for reproduction and herd restoration. Regarding the repair of irrigation works and the improvement of production land, due to the large volume of work and high costs, beyond the district's capacity, it will propose to the superiors to be able to support the locality. If there is no plan to rebuild the damaged irrigation works and the fields buried by the recent floods, then the upcoming winter and spring crops will have to be abandoned, unable to produce...
Mr. Luong Tri Dung - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quy Chau district.
