The Hanoi bridge was chaired by comrades: Tran Luu Quang - Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control; Le Minh Hoan - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Representatives of ministries, departments and branches.
At Nghe An bridge point, there were comrade Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and representatives of departments, branches, and localities.
Damage of over 9,000 billion VND due to natural disasters
In our country, natural disasters in 2023 occurred extremely in all regions with 1,964 natural disasters (21/22 types), especially heavy rains causing landslides, flash floods, floods, and widespread inundation.
Natural disasters have caused great damage to people, property, infrastructure, affecting people's lives and production. Accidents at sea, construction collapses, chemical incidents, oil spills, fires and explosions occurred more frequently and with more seriousness than the previous year. Economic losses due to incidents and natural disasters are estimated at 9,324 billion VND.
Some major natural disasters in 2023 include: The heavy rain from August 2-8 in the mountainous region of the North, causing 16 deaths and missing people, and property damage of over VND 969 billion; Heavy rain caused landslides in many locations in the Central Highlands; The heavy rain from September 24-29 due to the influence of a tropical depression in 6 Central provinces and 13 Northern provinces caused flooding in low-lying areas, the most serious in Nghe An province (at the peak, 2,337 houses were flooded). Floods and landslides caused 21 deaths, missing people, and injuries (10 deaths; 11 injuries).
From mid-October to mid-November, the Central region experienced 3 heavy rains, floods, and widespread inundation, causing 14 deaths and missing people; The heat was more intense and fierce than the average of many years, with many record heat waves exceeding historical values such as Lac Son (Hoa Binh) 43.4 degrees, Hoi Xuan (Thanh Hoa) 44.1 degrees, Tuong Duong (Nghe An) 44.2 degrees - this is the highest temperature value ever observed in Vietnam...
Since the beginning of 2024, a number of serious natural disasters have occurred across the country, such as severe cold in the Northern and North Central regions; drought, saltwater intrusion, landslides, land subsidence and flooding due to high tides in the Mekong Delta (most severe in the Ca Mau region); drought in the Central Highlands; heavy rain, thunderstorms, lightning, and hail in the Northern, North Central, Central Highlands and Southern regions (hail and thunderstorms continuously occurred in 19 provinces in the Northern and North Central regions); heat waves exceeding history at 110/186 monitoring stations nationwide...
Immediately after the disaster occurred, leaders of the State, Government, Steering Committee and local leaders directly went to the scene to encourage and visit the affected people, directly inspected the work of overcoming the consequences, and soon stabilized people's lives. The Prime Minister decided to support 8,500 billion VND from the central budget reserve in 2023 for 43 provinces and cities to prevent, combat and overcome the consequences of natural disasters and landslides; localities have prioritized and used resources for disaster prevention and control activities with a total budget of over 3,070 billion VND.
In Nghe An province, 2023 is a year of complex natural disasters. Although not directly affected by storms and tropical depressions, there have been extreme weather phenomena such as tornadoes, lightning, cold spells, cold air, hot weather, and heavy rain. Specifically, there were 22 cold spells (including 16 Northeast monsoons); 3 severe cold spells; 11 heat spells; 36 tornadoes, hail, lightning, and localized heavy rain in many communes and districts in the province; 1 widespread heavy rain in the province. Estimated economic damage was about 667 billion VND.
Improving the quality of natural disaster forecasting
Speaking at the conference, a representative of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said: In early 2024, the whole country recorded record hot temperatures in localities with an increasing number of sunny days. It is expected that from now until the end of the year, there will continue to be prolonged and stronger hot spells, causing widespread drought. Regarding storms and tropical depressions, there are expected to be 11-13 storms, of which about 5-7 will affect the mainland. Floods are expected to occur from September to November... Therefore, departments and localities need to proactively develop plans to prevent natural disasters early to minimize damage.
Ms. Pauline Tamesis - United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam said: Currently, climate change is taking place all over the world, extreme weather events, natural disasters are likely to occur and cause great damage. Vietnam is one of the countries that are often heavily affected by natural disasters. We are committed to accompanying the Vietnamese Government in disaster prevention solutions and will coordinate to carry out humanitarian activities, support food, health care... for localities and households affected by natural disasters.
Representatives of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Ha Tinh, Thua Thien Hue, Dak Nong, Tien Giang, and Ca Mau provinces presented reports on disaster prevention work in each locality and made recommendations and proposals to the Government and central ministries and branches to consider supporting localities with funds to repair weak structures and purchase equipment for disaster prevention, search and rescue in 2024. In addition, authorities need to improve the quality of forecasting, warning, and monitoring and supervision of natural disasters because this is very important for localities to proactively take preventive measures.
Concluding the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang emphasized: 2023 is a special year. Although there are no storms, in return, our country has to deal with many other extreme weather phenomena such as saltwater intrusion, landslides, floods, fires and explosions. Despite many difficulties, ministries, branches and localities have made great efforts in natural disaster prevention and mitigation.
In 2024, the weather is forecast to continue to have many unusual developments, especially heat and drought in the middle of the year and storms and floods are expected to occur from now until the end of the year. Therefore, the Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to focus on checking the current status of vulnerable areas before the storm season; properly implement the Law on Civil Defense to ensure continuous and effective operations in directing and advising on response to natural disasters and incidents.
In addition, units and localities need to strengthen communication and information work in various forms, especially social networks, to raise people's awareness of natural disaster prevention; check and review scenarios to respond to climate change and natural disasters and make appropriate adjustments to reality.
For the Hydrometeorological Forecasting Agency, it is necessary to improve the quality of forecasts and provide timely information so that localities can proactively develop prevention plans. Local leaders must improve their management and direction capacity when natural disasters occur, while mobilizing resources to invest in infrastructure, overcome consequences, and take advantage of socialized resources in addition to support from the Central Government.
For international organizations, the Vietnamese Government hopes that units will continue to accompany, exchange experiences, information, and support professional training on natural disaster prevention. In addition, it can support and invest in localities across the country in natural disaster prevention infrastructure through projects.
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