Ensuring the safety of people's lives and property

As we know, due to the impact of climate change, natural disasters are increasingly extreme and unpredictable, with prolonged intense heat, localized heavy rains in many localities, and continuous riverbank and coastal erosion in the Mekong Delta and some provinces in the South Central region. In addition, landslides caused by heavy rains in the North, Central and Central Highlands have caused great damage to people, houses, property and infrastructure works.

Damage caused by floods

From the beginning of 2023 to now, in the Mekong Delta, there have been 122 landslides affecting residents, dike works, traffic, and mangrove forests. Most recently, a landslide in Bac Kan province killed one person and in Lam Dong province killed three Lam Dong police officers and one civilian. In addition, it also caused damage to a lot of State and people's property. At the beginning of the rainy season, landslides also occurred in Binh Thuan province. Specifically, on July 30, 2023, there were landslides on the positive slope, trees fell, rocks and soil, trees overflowed and filled ditches, curbs, roads, and slope erosion on National Highway 55, in Ham Tan district, causing local traffic congestion, affecting traffic safety and the safety of road structures. Accordingly, there are about 43 locations with a positive slope landslide with a volume of about 9,300m3, including 7 locations with severe landslides, the stone steps of Da Tro bridge were eroded and damaged. Also at the end of July 2023, due to heavy rain for many days in the upstream areas of rivers in the province, the upstream water level rose very quickly. Rain and floods also caused a lot of damage to trees, houses, and crops of the people. In the province, a fisherman was also swept away by waves and went missing. Heavy rain and flash floods also caused heavy damage to crops, roads, and people's property. In Tanh Linh district, after many days of rain and floods in July 2023, about 20 households were locally flooded. In the residential areas of villages 1, 2 and 3 of Suoi Kiet commune, the water level was more than 1m, so some households had to evacuate. Heavy rain also caused the collapse of about 160m of various fences of 3 households in village 1, Gia Huynh commune. In La Ngau commune, flash floods swept away and damaged 14 hectares of corn, rice, and cashew with a damage level of over 70%. In addition, about 40 hectares of 75-day-old rice in Huy Khiem commune were deeply flooded and more than 20 cashew trees about 4 years old of a household fell. Heavy rain also swept away, broke and lost 15 fish cages of households along La Nga river, Dong Kho commune, causing total estimated damage of over 4 billion VND.

Proactively prevent and combat natural disasters

In order to proactively direct and deploy the work of preventing and combating natural disasters in general and landslides in particular, effectively respond, and minimize damage caused by natural disasters during the rainy, stormy, and flood season in 2023, the Provincial People's Committee has requested the Chairmen of the People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities to organize inspections and reviews of residential areas, schools, medical facilities, agency headquarters, warehouses, and barracks in steep hillside areas, along rivers and streams to promptly detect areas at risk of landslides during heavy rains and strong floods. Resolutely organize the relocation and evacuation of people in areas at high risk of landslides, develop proactive plans to prevent landslides and evacuate in bad situations to ensure safety of life and minimize damage to property for people and infrastructure. Have plans to support resettlement and stabilize the lives of households that have to relocate to new places. Strictly manage, strengthen inspection, supervision, and review of licensing and sand and gravel exploitation on rivers and streams to limit landslides. Coordinate with relevant departments and branches to inspect safety at construction sites, especially residential housing construction projects along rivers, streams, coasts, and steep hillsides. Suspend construction if safety is not guaranteed or there is a risk of landslides or encroachment affecting the flow and flood drainage. In the long term, it is necessary to review, inspect, and strictly control the planning and construction of houses and constructions along rivers, streams, and coasts to overcome encroachment on the flow, increasing the risk of being affected by landslides. Proactively review and rearrange residents in areas that are not safe, affect the flow or have a high risk of landslides. Review and update response scenarios in case of strong storms making landfall directly causing heavy rain, floods, landslides, and have specific evacuation plans for each scenario...

In addition, the Provincial People's Committee also requested the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to build and update the database on landslides, synthesize the landslide situation in localities and report to the Provincial People's Committee, and advise on timely handling of situations and incidents that occur. Urge, direct and guide localities to deploy urgent measures to prevent and combat landslides. Coordinate with the Provincial Radio and Television Station, Binh Thuan Newspaper, and other local media agencies to strengthen the dissemination of laws on natural disaster and landslide prevention and control, and guide localities and people on response skills when landslides occur. Promote tree planting, afforestation, care and improvement of upstream forests, coastal protection forests, wave-breaking forests, and mangroves to prevent and combat landslides. Prepare forces, vehicles, materials, equipment, coordinate with Central forces, Military Region 7 and coordinate with local rescue forces to seriously, promptly and effectively carry out rescue work when required....

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