Comrade Hoang Quoc Khanh, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the conference.
Attending the conference were leaders of departments, branches and sectors who are members of the Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue; leaders of People's Committees of districts, cities and towns in the province.
Natural disaster leaves 18 people dead and missing
According to the report of the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, in 2023 and the first 3 months of 2024, the province experienced 30 natural disasters causing serious damage to people and property; storms, tornadoes, floods, landslides killed 18 people, 1 person went missing and 7 people were injured; 659 houses were damaged and affected; nearly 12,500 hectares of rice, corn, crops, vegetables, fruit trees, aquatic products, and trees were damaged; more than 500 livestock and poultry died; nearly 150 infrastructure works were damaged. In particular, floods caused landslides in nearly 1,000 locations on national highways, provincial roads, district roads, and communal roads with hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of soil and rock.
The total estimated economic damage caused by natural disasters in 2023 is more than 1,120 billion VND. Natural disasters have had a major impact on socio-economic development, greatly affecting people's lives, agricultural and forestry production, and infrastructure.
In 2023, 9/9 districts, towns, cities and 152/152 communes, wards and towns have developed and approved plans for natural disaster prevention and control integrated with local socio-economic development plans to ensure compliance with regulations. By the end of March 2024, Lao Cai province had arranged and relocated 63/201 households living in dangerous areas. In 2023, 2 district-level disaster response drills were also organized in Muong Khuong and Bao Yen with 1,894 participants and 3 PCTT and TKCN drills in communes with 750 participants.
In 2023, functional forces rescued 13 victims; authorities at all levels and mass organizations visited and supported families with human losses with an amount of 223 million VND according to regulations and mobilized support and raised 13.9 billion VND to support families with human and property losses caused by natural disasters. Lao Cai province has also arranged to combine capital sources and the Provincial Disaster Prevention and Control Fund to build new, upgrade, repair, support, invest in overcoming consequences, and reconstruct after natural disasters 85 projects and works with a budget of nearly 432 billion VND; received corn seeds from the Central Government and allocated 25.5 tons to localities.
In addition to the achieved results, the work of natural disaster prevention, control, search and rescue still has many difficulties and shortcomings, such as: The direction of some localities at both district and commune levels on prevention, response and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters is not drastic. The work of general consultation and damage assessment sometimes does not meet the requirements. The staff in charge of natural disaster prevention and control is still lacking in quantity and weak in quality. The implementation of some directives and management documents from higher levels is sometimes confusing, does not ensure the requirements in terms of content, and is not timely.
During the year, some localities have not paid attention to urging the collection and payment of the Natural Disaster Prevention and Control Fund such as Sa Pa town (only collected 9.5%); Bac Ha (9.8%) and Bao Thang (26.1%)... From January 2023 to March 12, 2024, the whole province has only collected more than 9.3 billion VND of the Natural Disaster Prevention and Control Fund, reaching 29.1% of the plan. Along with that, the provision and sharing of information in disaster response, search and rescue between levels, sectors and localities is still limited and not timely; some people's awareness of natural disaster prevention and control is still limited and subjective.
2024 is not to be passive or surprised
In 2024, according to forecasts, the weather situation will have many negative and complicated developments, many types of dangerous natural disasters with high intensity will directly affect Lao Cai, peaking from the end of March to September. Therefore, the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue requires departments, branches and localities to proactively develop response plans. In particular, all levels, branches and localities need to proactively develop response plans for natural disasters according to risk levels; improve the quality of commune-level disaster prevention and control teams to prevent and respond from the beginning; strengthen information and communication activities, guide skills to prevent and respond to common types of natural disasters, especially storms, floods, flash floods, landslides, etc.
At the conference, members of the Provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control and representatives of units and localities discussed and evaluated the results, shared experiences in disaster prevention, control, search and rescue in 2023 and proposed solutions for implementation in 2024.
Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Mr. Hoang Quoc Khanh, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized: In 2024, with the motto of not being passive or surprised in natural disaster prevention, search and rescue, the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue, and local authorities need to resolutely and synchronously implement many solutions, such as: Perfecting the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue at district and commune levels; strengthening inspection and review of traffic infrastructure, irrigation works, and drainage systems; inspecting and assessing the safety level of dams and reservoirs; preparing well for natural disaster prevention conditions according to the "4 on-site" motto; establishing forces to participate in search and rescue... when an emergency occurs; promptly arranging budget, means, and materials to overcome natural disaster damage...
Regarding the collection and expenditure of the Natural Disaster Prevention and Control Fund, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Provincial Tax Department to preside over and coordinate with functional agencies and local authorities to urge agencies, units, localities, companies and enterprises to properly implement the collection and payment according to the set plan.
The Standing Office of the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control proactively updates weather conditions to promptly advise the Provincial People's Committee on implementing measures to prevent and combat natural disasters.
The main units performing rescue work proactively develop plans regarding forces and means to carry out tasks when situations arise, and avoid being caught off guard...
Source
Comment (0)