Nghe An Provincial People's Committee directed to strengthen the work of ensuring order and safety of waterway traffic during the rainy and stormy season.

The document stated: In recent times, all levels and sectors have directed the synchronous implementation of measures to ensure order and safety on waterways, creating positive changes, contributing to limiting and preventing waterway traffic accidents.

However, waterway transport activities still have some shortcomings and limitations such as: Mineral exploitation changes the flow and ship routes, causing erosion of works, traffic infrastructure, and dikes; many inland waterway vehicles are not registered or inspected; some organizations and individuals use waterway vehicles to transport passengers without permission from competent authorities; not strictly implementing the use of life buoys when traveling by boat... potentially causing loss of waterway traffic safety.

To overcome the above shortcomings, promote prevention and containment of waterway traffic accidents during the 2023 stormy season, the Provincial People's Committee requests:

* Department of Transport:

- Direct management units to strengthen the work of ensuring order and safety of waterway traffic during the rainy and stormy season, focusing on developing plans to regulate and ensure waterway traffic safety in locations with high risk of traffic accidents. In particular, at passenger terminals across the river and river crossing structures, promptly handle unsafe factors and prevent accidents between waterway vehicles and river crossing structures.

- Direct the traffic inspection force to coordinate with relevant agencies to strengthen inspection and examination of the work of ensuring order and safety of waterway traffic in the province in order to promptly detect, rectify and overcome existing problems, and prevent traffic accidents on inland waterways.

- Advise on the implementation of inter-sectoral coordination to ensure order and safety of inland waterway traffic in 2023 in Plan No. 1606/KHLN-DKVN dated April 28, 2023 of the Vietnam Register, the Traffic Police Department and the Vietnam Inland Waterways Administration.

- Coordinate with departments, branches and localities to inspect safety conditions for piers, wharves, channels, signals and other related works within the scope of ports, inland waterway wharves, watercraft at passenger wharves across and along rivers, tourist passenger vehicles operating on rivers; watercraft when leaving ports and wharves and ensure safety conditions for life-saving and rescue equipment, certification of crew members' professional competence; Certificate of registration and inspection of vehicles according to regulations.

* Provincial Police:

- Strengthen the propaganda of laws on inland waterway traffic safety and order to each household and village in the area, focusing on those directly participating in waterway traffic such as students of riverside schools, boatmen, vehicle operators, and people doing business and living on the river.

- Direct the police of units and localities to strengthen inspection of traffic activities on inland waterways, promptly detect and strictly handle violations of waterway traffic safety and order; rectify aquaculture activities that violate waterway traffic safety and strictly handle violations; inspect mineral exploration and exploitation activities on rivers; develop rescue plans for ferry piers and ferry terminals, where there is a high density of people participating in waterway traffic.

*DepartmentTeachingsexandDigcreate:

- Right from the start of the new school year, instruct education departments and riverside schools to strictly check the use of issued lifebuoys; regularly propagate, educate, and remind students to voluntarily and strictly implement measures to ensure waterway traffic safety when traveling by boat such as: wearing life jackets, using lifebuoys, flotation devices; not boarding a boat without life-saving equipment or when the boat is carrying more people than the prescribed number.

- Strengthen the propaganda work on waterway traffic safety in schools where students often have to travel by waterway in extracurricular lessons with the content "Traffic culture with peace on the river", Action program "For children's safety on the river", "Wear life jackets when traveling by boat"... with the goal "Human life is above all".

*DepartmentResourcesandLipschool:

- Tighten state management of mineral exploration and exploitation activities (sand, gravel, etc.) on inland waterways; coordinate with localities to regularly inspect the mineral exploitation situation, strictly handle illegal mineral exploitation activities on rivers; suspend mineral exploitation activities on inland waterways that have negative impacts on the flow and navigation channels, causing erosion of works, traffic infrastructure, dikes, etc.

*OftendirectBoardAnwholedeliverinformationconscious:

- Regularly urge, monitor and report on the implementation results of localities and units in ensuring order and safety of waterway traffic. Advise the Provincial People's Committee to promptly rectify existing problems and have solutions to ensure order and safety of waterway traffic in the whole province; criticize units and localities that perform ineffectively, and commend units and localities that do well in this work.

- Continue to review and provide additional life-saving equipment to units and localities to ensure safety during the storm season.

*People's Committeethedistrict,wallstreet,town:

- Strengthen propaganda and implementation of laws on inland waterway traffic order and safety. At the same time, strengthen state management on ensuring waterway traffic order and safety, continue to review and invest in renovating and upgrading vehicles and passenger wharves (ferry wharves), ensuring all operating conditions are met according to regulations.

- Direct the People's Committees of communes, wards and towns to organize training and sign commitments for vehicle owners and operators of waterway vehicles to strictly comply with legal regulations on ensuring order and safety of waterway traffic.

- Actively coordinate with the Traffic Police, Transport Inspectorate, and representatives of the Inland Waterways Port Authority of Region I in Nghe An to regularly inspect traffic activities on inland waterways, especially passenger transport activities, to detect and strictly handle violations, resolutely suspend ports, wharves, vehicles and vehicle operators that do not meet operating conditions, overloaded vehicles, vehicles carrying more than the prescribed number of people, boat passengers not using life-saving equipment, etc.

- Strictly manage waterway transport activities that arise without being licensed by competent authorities as prescribed, such as: Passenger transport activities in lakes and dams; illegal mineral exploitation activities; aquaculture, seafood farming, and cage fish farming on local waterways. Proactively develop rescue plans to promptly respond when incidents occur in the area.

- Continue to inspect, review and classify inland waterway vehicles in the management area; coordinate with the Registration Department No. 3 to organize registration and extend inspection according to regulations.