Prime Minister: Vietnam's available vaccine is a spirit of resilience and overcoming difficulties

On the afternoon of March 8, in Ben Tre province, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a working session with five provinces in the Mekong Delta (Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Long An, Kien Giang, Ca Mau) on drought and saltwater intrusion, which are forecast to become more severe in the coming time.

Appreciating the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the authorities of 7 coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta in fighting drought and saltwater intrusion, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the drought and saltwater intrusion situation this year is worse than in 2016, but the damage to rice crops alone is only 9.6% of that in 2019. This shows that "words go hand in hand with actions" when ministries and localities proactively implement solutions proposed at the Conference in September last year chaired by the Prime Minister.

People in the region have clearly changed their awareness, considering drought and salinity as a reality that must be faced, and working with the government to find solutions to adapt by changing production methods, storing fresh water, etc. "I know a comrade who used to grow grapefruit, but now he has switched to growing coconuts and is not affected at all," the Prime Minister gave an example.

Faced with the great and fierce challenges of climate change, upstream changes, and subsidence in the delta, the synchronous application of hard solutions, combined with soft solutions, "turning challenges into opportunities" has been clearly demonstrated. Rice has been transferred early to have a big harvest. "We say it is following nature, soft solutions, but besides that, hard works are also needed in this time of profound climate change," the Prime Minister stated. The State and localities have allocated resources to build many prevention works. A series of temporary dams, dug wells, and canals have promptly solved the problem of water for production and people's daily life. Specifically, by 2023, Ben Tre province will ensure that there will be no more salinity. This is a lesson for the Mekong Delta provinces.

Through the severe drought and salinity season of 2020, we have come up with the motto, "a difficult problem, even a very difficult one, but with the Government, authorities at all levels, economic sectors and the entire population focusing and with the highest determination, we will solve the problem and achieve victory". The Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam's available vaccine is the nation's resilient spirit, overcoming difficulties. In times of difficulty, the stronger we are, the more we move forward. "That is our will and we can do it in a place with great potential and facing harsh nature".

Regarding the COVID-19 epidemic, the Prime Minister requested the Mekong Delta provinces to be proactive, positive, responsible, and fully absorb the opinions of the Government and the Ministry of Health to synchronously deploy solutions, not be subjective to prevent the epidemic such as medical declaration, grasp each area, each household, each neighborhood, and residential area so that when someone is infected, we can isolate and quarantine them according to the instructions of the Ministry of Health.

“Yesterday, there were a few people who got sick and caused chaos in the market. I have requested that food be sold until 11pm in the fullest possible way. Will anyone buy hundreds of thousands of tons?”, the Prime Minister said, adding that he will soon chair a national conference on Vietnam’s food security. “I would like to inform you that we have enough basis to have a very high food reserve.”

It is necessary to promptly implement Resolution 01, 02 of the Government and Directive 11 of the Prime Minister to achieve double victory: not only successfully preventing the COVID-19 epidemic but also successfully completing socio-economic tasks. Localities do not raise the issue of withdrawing targets.

It is necessary to survey and evaluate the basic socio-economic development plan, from which to set out the tasks for the next 5 years accurately, specifically and scientifically. This includes basic investigation of subsidence and erosion.

Informing that saline intrusion is forecast to continue to increase in the Mekong Delta, with the risk of water shortage for production and people's daily life, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and relevant localities to continue to better implement Prime Minister's Directive 04 on urgent solutions to prevent and combat drought, water shortage, and saline intrusion, further reducing damage to production, stabilizing people's lives, and preventing people from lacking water for daily life.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continue to monitor and forecast the water resources of the upper Mekong River and the water resources to the Mekong Delta to promptly inform all levels and sectors. Coordinate with localities to assess the current status of water resources in the area to balance water resources for daily life and production. No household is at risk of hunger or lack of water for daily life, especially poor households and policy families.

Requiring provinces to focus on disbursing public investment capital, the Prime Minister said that a conference on this work will be held soon, at which some units and individuals who are slowing down the disbursement progress will be criticized and disciplined. "If any of you disburse well, we will allocate more capital for you."

The Prime Minister agreed to support a budget from the central budget for 5 Mekong Delta provinces according to regulations to carry out tasks of preventing, combating and overcoming the consequences of drought and saltwater intrusion (such as pumping water; dredging water intakes and canals; building temporary dams to prevent saltwater intrusion and store fresh water; digging ponds and wells to store water; drilling wells, extending domestic water supply pipelines; supporting water storage and filtration equipment, costs of transporting domestic water, etc.).

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies to review urgent issues requiring support, propose specific support levels, and submit them to the Prime Minister for consideration and early decision. Localities must proactively allocate budgets, support the right people, the right work, avoid losses, and combat negativity.

The Ministry of Construction urgently coordinates with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review and plan to deploy projects to ensure domestic water supply for the Mekong Delta region, especially for coastal areas and the Ca Mau peninsula, to avoid a situation of passivity and lack of domestic water during the annual dry season.