Building storm and flood resistant houses: Helping the poor stabilize their lives

(Baonghean) - Implementing Decision 48/2014 of the Prime Minister, poor people in many localities have been supported with capital to build houses to prevent storms and floods. Accordingly, poor households in extremely difficult areas are supported by the State with 16 million VND/household, in difficult areas are supported with 14 million VND and in areas affected by natural disasters is supported with 12 million VND, at the same time, they are able to borrow capital with preferential interest rates. From this program, many poor households in the province have had the opportunity to build solid houses and stabilize their lives.

Mr. Dao Huu Tien in hamlet 10 (Nam Cuong, Nam Dan) is building a flood-proof house.

Decision No. 48/2014/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on supporting the poor in building houses to prevent storms and floods has been implemented very effectively by relevant levels and sectors. Nam Cuong is a commune in the southern region of Nam Dan district. During the rainy season, the Lam River rises, causing many houses to be submerged in water, so Decision No. 48 is expected by the poor.

Mr. Tran Trung Dung, a land and construction officer of Nam Cuong commune, Nam Dan district, said: “At the end of 2014, commune officials were trained by the district on implementing the Prime Minister's policy on supporting the poor to build houses to prevent storms and floods. Immediately after that, the commune established a Steering Committee and deployed it to 11 hamlets to review and approve households eligible to implement the program. On that basis, the commune prepared documents for 17 poor households and submitted them to the district and they were approved. Currently, there are 9 poor households in the commune that are building houses.”

Mr. Dao Huu Tien in Hamlet 10 is one of the beneficiaries, excitedly sharing: “In this period, with the support of the State to build houses to prevent storms and floods, I have discussed with my relatives and supported them with loans, determined to build a new, more solid house. Currently, although I have not received the support money (12 million VND) and the loan (15 million VND) with preferential interest rates from the Social Policy Bank, on July 15, my family organized a groundbreaking ceremony to build a house, the roof has been poured, after waiting for the formwork to be removed, we will continue to build a house to prevent floods and it is expected to be completed before the rainy season this year.”

The life of Mr. Tien's family only depends on 2 sao of contracted rice fields and rice production is unstable because of floods. In addition, he lost his ability to work due to a traffic accident, so life is very difficult. For many years, because he did not have enough money to build a shelter to avoid floods, every rainy season, the family had to ask to stay with other households in the neighborhood. After completing the solid house under the program to build houses to prevent storms and floods, Mr. Tien's family and other poor households in Nam Cuong commune will feel secure and have a stable life. It is known that Nam Dan district has 76 poor households benefiting from the program to support the construction of houses to prevent storms and floods with a total cost of more than 2 billion VND; in the first phase, 55 poor households were supported with 660 million VND to build houses to prevent storms and floods.

Hamlet 10 of Hung Xuan commune, Hung Nguyen district is often called "the hamlet outside the river" by the local people, because 33 households live close to the Lam river bank. When implementing Decision 48/2014/QD - TTg of the Prime Minister on supporting the poor to build houses to prevent storms and floods, the commune instructed Hamlet 10 to review and review in the residential community, through which only Mrs. Nguyen Thi Xuan's family was eligible to implement the program. The commune has submitted documents to the district for approval and directly mobilized family members and relatives to support the construction of houses to prevent storms and floods in 2015. Hung Nguyen is often flooded during the rainy season, greatly affecting the lives and production of the people, therefore, when implementing Decision 48, the district regularly checks and urges the communes to implement on schedule.

Mr. Thai Huy Dung, Head of the Department of Industry and Trade, Hung Nguyen District People's Committee said: "The total budget capital for the program to support the poor in building houses to prevent storms and floods in the district is 660 million VND and up to now, 10 houses have been built. In the coming time, the district will continue to direct communes to focus on accelerating the construction of houses to prevent storms and floods, and at the same time request relevant units and sectors to monitor and inspect the reality to promptly disburse support capital, loans... to create favorable conditions for poor households to build houses to prevent storms and floods".

Dien Chau district is one of the localities with many households participating in the program of building houses to prevent storms and floods. According to the district's statistics, there are 234 poor households in 6 communes eligible for support under Decision No. 48. Accordingly, in Dien Lam commune, there are 21 households, Dien Nguyen 9 households, Dien Tho 15 households, Dien Phuc 20 households, Dien Phu 3 households and Dien Van 166 households. In addition to the support amount of 660 million VND from the state budget, the Social Policy Bank also creates favorable conditions for people to access loans from the program. Immediately after receiving the document guiding the lending operations according to Decision 48 and the Decision approving the support project, the Bank Transaction Office reported to the representative board of the District Social Policy Bank, and at the same time disseminated the contents of related documents to the Poverty Reduction Committee, commune-level associations, and heads of Savings and Loan Groups at meetings for wide dissemination to the people.

Mr. Lam Quan, Director of the Transaction Office of Dien Chau Social Policy Bank, said: “On April 24, 2015, the Transaction Office received Notice No. 671/NHCS-TB on the temporary assignment of the lending plan target for poor households to build houses to prevent storms and floods with a total amount of 825 million VND. The unit's Executive Board reported and advised the Board of Directors of the District Social Policy Bank to decide on the allocation of capital. After completing the procedures as prescribed, the bank will promptly disburse the loan capital to the people.”

Mr. Thai Hong Tham's family in Hamlet 4, Nam Cuong Commune (Nam Dan) built a house to prevent storms and floods.

Que Phong district also received 784 million VND from the state budget, in the first phase, 49 households benefited. Implementing Decision 48/2014/QD - TTg of the Prime Minister on supporting the poor to build houses to prevent storms and floods. Up to now, there are 13 districts in the province implementing (in which poor households in extremely difficult areas are supported by the State with 16 million VND/household; in difficult areas are supported with 14 million VND/household and in non-difficult areas are supported with 12 million VND/household). The implementation principle is that the State directly supports families with the help of the community. Based on the consideration and preparation of documents at all levels, the Provincial People's Committee will approve and allocate capital to the locality. The commune government guides households in choosing house designs, how to make estimates, how to organize house construction and mobilize political and social organizations to support working days, materials, etc.

During the process of building storm and flood-proof houses, poor households are disbursed loans from the Social Policy Bank, the Commune People's Committee will temporarily advance the budget and community support funds to the households after the acceptance is completed, all funds will be disbursed to the families. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Loi, Deputy Director of the Department of Construction, said: "People often build storm and flood-proof houses including foundations, floors, columns made of reinforced concrete, walls made of bricks or cement blocks, roofs covered with tiles or corrugated iron with storm-proof technical details. The average area of ​​each house is about 45 square meters, the cost of each house is about 60 million VND or more, so it needs the help of relatives and society". Supporting poor households to build storm and flood-proof houses is a large and humane program. Currently, in the province, there are 173 poor households supported to build houses. The mobilized capital for implementation reached 7,837 million VND (of which the central budget capital is 6,100 million VND, the social policy bank capital is 1,208 million VND and other mobilized capital is 529 million VND).

The goal of the program to support poor households in building storm and flood shelters in our province is to complete 1,010 storm and flood shelters by 2016. To achieve the set plan, it requires the active participation of relevant levels, sectors and especially the beneficiaries, especially the participation in capital support from organizations, individuals and the community...

Hoang Vinh