Absolutely do not be subjective in preventing and fighting natural disasters.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang chaired a conference to review the work of incident and disaster prevention, control, and search and rescue in 2023 and deploy key tasks in 2024 - Photo: VGP/Hai Minh

Also attending the conference were Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan; Lieutenant General Nguyen Trong Binh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army; leaders of ministries and branches who are members of the National Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue, and the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

Damage caused by natural disasters is estimated at more than 8,200 billion VND.

According to the report at the Conference, in 2023, many major incidents and natural disasters occurred in the world and the region, causing very serious damage to people and property, such as: Earthquake in Türkiye; dam failure in Libya; historic floods in Beijing, China; unusual heat in the southern United States, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East and some Asian countries.

In Vietnam, weather and climate conditions are extreme in all regions with 21/22 types of natural disasters, especially heavy rains causing landslides, flash floods, floods, and widespread inundation, causing great damage to people, property, infrastructure, and affecting people's lives and production.

Statistics from the beginning of 2023 to January 10, 2024, nationwide there were 5,331 incidents and natural disasters, killing 924 people, leaving 205 missing, injuring 977 people; sinking, burning, and damaging 555 vehicles; burning 1,740 houses, factories, market kiosks, 1,346 hectares of forest and vegetation.

The incident and natural disaster also damaged 15,977 houses; 115.56 km of dykes, embankments, canals, 711 irrigation works, swept away 179 temporary bridges; damaged 151,279 hectares of rice, crops, 3,547 hectares of aquaculture, 104 cages; killed 75,357 livestock and poultry.

Total economic damage caused by incidents and natural disasters is estimated at about VND8,236 billion, the report said.

Also during the above period, ministries, branches and localities mobilized 204,507 people and 23,132 vehicles to respond and effectively handle 4,336 incidents and natural disasters, rescuing 3,968 people and 207 vehicles.

Ministries, branches and localities also guided and supported the evacuation of more than 962,000 people and more than 201,000 vehicles from dangerous areas to safe places; called, counted and guided 328,227 ships/1,608,015 workers to know the developments and direction of storms and tropical depressions to proactively prevent them.

2023 is the hottest year on record

The General Department of Hydrometeorology (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) said that 2023 was the hottest year in observation history when global temperatures were 1.45 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels. degrees Celsius, approaching the set limit of 2 degrees Celsius in the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015. The rate of global warming is so fast that the United Nations Secretary-General exclaimed that the world is moving into the era of global warming.

In Vietnam, 21 out of 22 types of natural disasters have occurred, notably many short-term extreme rainstorms with 24-hour rainfall reaching over 800 mm in some places.

Serious flash floods and landslides in Sa Pa and Bat Xat, Lao Cai province; landslides at Bao Loc pass and Da Lat city, Lam Dong province.

Hot weather with record breaking temperature recorded in Tuong Duong (Nghe An) 44.2 degrees Celsius, this is also the highest daily temperature value in the country ever recorded.

In 2024, more storms may form right in the East Sea

The General Department of Hydrometeorology predicts that the El Nino phenomenon (warm phase) will continue until mid-2024 and peak, so 2024 could be the 10th consecutive year with the highest average global temperature and natural disasters will be more unusual.

The General Department of Hydrometeorology warns of the risk of water shortage in the Northern, Central Highlands and Southern regions in the first half of the year, and in the Central region in June, July and August. Heat waves in the Southern, Northwestern and Central regions are likely to come earlier and appear more frequently than the average of many years.

The El Nino phenomenon will turn neutral in the middle of the year, followed by the La Nina phenomenon, so storm and tropical depression activity will likely be more concentrated in the second half of the year.

In particular, there will be more storms and tropical depressions forming in the East Sea, with the storm structure in the East Sea forecast to account for 1/3 of the total number of storms. This means that storm prevention and control will have to be done faster and more urgently because storms in the East Sea will impact the mainland very quickly.

Along with that, thunderstorms and short-term heavy rains appear more frequently, causing landslides in mountainous areas and urban flooding.

Cold air is not very active but there are strong cold air waves, causing widespread cold, frost, and snow in the mountainous areas of the North.

Severe cold weather lasts until the end of January

Due to the influence of the strongest cold air mass in the winter of 2023-2024, widespread cold has occurred in the North and Central provinces, with average daily temperatures lower than 13 degrees Celsius. At 10 degrees Celsius, many places in the northern mountainous areas such as Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Quang Ninh experienced frost.

This severe cold spell is forecast to last until around January 28, with the lowest temperature in the North ranging from 8-10 ^degrees Celsius, and in the mountainous areas of the North ranging from 3-6 degrees Celsius. degrees Celsius, in mountainous areas below 0 degrees Celsius; North Central region commonly from 9-11 degrees Celsius; Central Central region from 12-15 degrees Celsius

In addition, due to the influence of cold air, the sea areas in the East Sea have strong easterly winds of level 6-7, in some places level 8, gusting to level 9; waves from 2-5 m high, rough seas lasting for many days.

Speaking at the Conference, leaders of ministries and branches focused on pointing out difficulties, obstacles, and existing limitations, and at the same time proposed and recommended solutions to improve disaster prevention, control, and rescue work in 2024 and the following years.

Ministries and sectors emphasized the need to have a roadmap for investment in purchasing equipment for incident and disaster prevention and control, search and rescue; provide more timely information to the press so that information and communication work can be one step ahead; have solutions to increase forest coverage and quality to retain water; and decentralize fire prevention and control to the grassroots.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan suggested increasing the application of science and technology, including remote sensing technology, artificial intelligence, big data, etc., in the work of preventing and fighting incidents, natural disasters, and search and rescue.

Absolutely do not be subjective in preventing and fighting natural disasters.

Concluding the Conference, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang assessed that the National Committee, the National Steering Committee, and its members proactively implemented their tasks of directing and operating the assigned tasks, contributing to minimizing damage to people and property.

Agreeing with the key tasks of the National Committee and Steering Committee in 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister once again emphasized the view that we must not be subjective in natural disaster prevention and control work because the weather is forecast to continue to change abnormally, with hot weather at the beginning of the year and storms at the end of the year.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and units to focus on reviewing institutional problems related to assigned functions and tasks in the work of preventing, combating and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, and searching and rescuing in order to promptly amend them to suit practical requirements.

Ministries, branches and localities must maintain the principle of prevention is better than cure. To do so, they must provide timely information and instructions to people, including by text message, so that people can protect themselves and gradually build awareness to participate in the work of preventing, overcoming the consequences of natural disasters and searching and rescuing.

At the same time, it is necessary to regularly conduct inspections and supervision at the grassroots level; pay attention to training basic skills for functional forces at the grassroots level; coordinate well in drills, disaster prevention, and rescue. Drills must be close to reality, economical, and avoid ostentation and formality.

Ministries and sectors strengthen international cooperation to learn from experience and mobilize external resources; increase the application of science and technology to improve the effectiveness of natural disaster prevention, response, and search and rescue.

Agencies and units must manage, allocate and use equipment in a reasonable, economical and effective manner, and proactively propose the purchase of necessary equipment; proactively propose amendments and supplements to regulations related to the management, allocation and use of equipment./.

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/tuyet-doi-khong-chu-quan-trong-phong-chong-thien-tai-369331.html