The Prime Minister raised challenges in disaster prevention and control.

On the morning of June 20, the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (PCTT) held an online conference to review PCTT-TKCN work in 2018 and deploy tasks for the coming time, co-chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc; Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung - Head of the Central Steering Committee for PCTT, Chairman of the National Committee for PCTT-TKCN; Nguyen Xuan Cuong - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee. The conference was attended online by more than 25,000 delegates from 18 provinces, cities and central ministries and branches.

On Nghe An side, comrades: Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Hoang Nghia Hieu - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; Tran Hai Binh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Commander of the Provincial Border Guard Command chaired. Attending were members of the Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control and representatives of relevant agencies and units.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired the conference. Photo: Quang Hieu (VGP)

Relying on the community to prevent and combat natural disasters

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc thanked international organizations for their support in helping Vietnamese people overcome the consequences of natural disasters and commended central and local levels and sectors for their efforts in disaster prevention and control in recent times.

The Prime Minister also emphasized that ministries and local branches must not be negligent and must join hands and have initiatives and many plans to proactively prevent and combat natural disasters, upholding the sense of responsibility to the people for disaster prevention and control. Accordingly, the motto is to be more proactive, timely, and effective to stabilize, protect, and minimize the number of people affected by natural disasters. In addition, the Prime Minister also pointed out the shortcomings and limitations in disaster prevention and control work and requested ministries, branches, and localities to promptly overcome them.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that the community is the place that best understands how to prevent and control natural disasters, so it is important to be proactive and rely on the community for disaster prevention and control. In particular, it is important to pay attention to the identification and challenges in disaster prevention and control - TKCN to have effective prevention and control plans, such as: correctly recognizing the impacts of natural disasters on some infrastructure works, such as the situation of excessive exploitation of groundwater, dredging and sand mining in riverbeds... The country's development cannot be separated from disaster prevention and control work. The climate is becoming more and more complex. Some ministries, branches and localities sometimes have poor awareness of disaster prevention and control. The Party and State always consider disaster prevention and control as an immediate, regular and long-term task with the participation of the whole society and taking prevention as the main thing, moving towards building a safe society against natural disasters.

Delegates at Nghe An bridge point attending the conference. Photo: Hoai Thu

Great efforts in disaster prevention and control

Previously, reviewing and summarizing the work of disaster prevention and control in 2018, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong emphasized that last year, ministries, departments and branches from the central to local levels made great efforts in disaster prevention and control, contributing to minimizing human and property losses. In particular, the response direction was implemented promptly and resolutely. Many effective and creative ways, especially the direction of reservoir operation, overcoming consequences and post-disaster reconstruction, were deployed.

However, there are still shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome. For example, the system of legal documents, policy mechanisms, standards and technical norms in the field of natural disaster prevention and control still has many gaps and shortcomings that affect the implementation and application in practice; The forces participating in natural disaster prevention and control from the central to local levels mostly lack tools to support the conditions to ensure the performance of tasks, especially when carrying out field work at the scene; The process of receiving aid, providing emergency relief and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters is still complicated, untimely, reducing the effectiveness of use; forecasting and warning work sometimes does not meet practical requirements...

The government and armed forces participated in rescue and support for people to overcome the consequences of floods in 2018. Photo: Archive

Assessment of the situation and key tasks

The conference also assessed the natural disaster situation in 2019 regarding storms, rain, floods and droughts with forecasts that many unusual and extreme developments may continue to occur in many areas and natural disaster risks tend to increase. In particular, the trend of storms is later, hot weather with higher and longer temperatures, the possibility of rain shortage in the last months of the season in the North and Central Highlands. In addition, riverbank and coastal erosion and land subsidence are still occurring more and more seriously, especially in the Mekong Delta and the Central Coast.

In 2018, damages caused by natural disasters: 224 people died and went missing; 1,967 houses collapsed and washed away; 31,335 houses were flooded, damaged and urgently relocated; 261,377 hectares of rice and crops were flooded and damaged; 43,159 hectares of industrial trees and fruit trees were collapsed and broken; 29,400 livestock and 774,427 poultry died; 11,900 hectares of aquaculture were damaged; 884 km of dykes, embankments, canals, embankments and 8.4 million m3 of soil and rock on national highways, provincial roads and rural roads were eroded; more than 86 km of river banks and coastlines were eroded; 107 boats sank due to storms. Total economic damage is estimated at nearly 20,000 billion VND.

Therefore, the conference identified the main goals for natural disaster prevention and control in 2019, including: The provincial standing office promotes the application of information technology, in which 50% of key areas of natural disasters are monitored online, 100% of meeting rooms are connected online. 100% of households that lost their homes in natural disasters and are currently living with others or temporarily staying are supported with funding to stabilize their housing before the 2019 flood season. 100% of subjects in areas at risk of natural disasters receive forecast information, warnings, and guidance on response skills. At least 30% of communes, villages, and hamlets complete the construction and operation of a shock force for natural disaster prevention and control in 2019, and 100% will be completed by the end of 2020.

Natural disaster forecast in 2019. Photo archive

The conference also heard presentations from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the localities of Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Khanh Hoa, Thua Thien - Hue, Ca Mau and representatives of the United Nations in Vietnam on implementing support and improving the work of minimizing damage caused by natural disasters.

On this occasion, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development awarded Certificates of Merit to 34 groups and 55 individuals with outstanding and outstanding achievements in directing, implementing and communicating on disaster prevention and control work in 2018. Previously, the Conference also announced the Prime Minister's decision on strengthening the Central Steering Committee on Disaster Prevention and Control.