Enhancing Civil Defense Capacity: Remarkable Results

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - After nearly 5 years of implementation, the Project "Improving the capacity to perform civil defense tasks, respond to natural disasters, search and rescue for local troops, militia and self-defense forces, and provincial reserve forces in the period of 2021-2025" has achieved many important achievements in natural disaster prevention and control (PCTT) in our province. This is one of the key projects contributing to the construction of a modern civil defense system, meeting the requirements of protecting community safety in the context of increasingly complex climate change.

Temporary reinforcement to limit landslides and erosion at the coast of Hoang Tien commune.

One of the most outstanding achievements of the project is the establishment of a large-scale PCTT force system with 186,583 participants, mainly military forces, border guards, police, militia and PCTT shock forces. In particular, immediately after the Central Steering Committee on PCTT issued Decision No. 08/QD-TWPCTT dated March 27, 2020 guiding the establishment and consolidation of PCTT shock teams at the commune level, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Department of Agriculture and Environment) advised the Provincial People's Committee to direct the establishment of PCTT shock teams in all communes, wards and towns. Currently, the province is maintaining the operation of 547 PCTT shock teams at the commune level, with 50,001 participants. This is the core force on the spot, ready to respond immediately when a natural disaster occurs, creating a tight defense network from the province to the grassroots.

In order to improve the quality of this force, units under the Department of Agriculture and Environment have organized training courses for forces working on disaster prevention and control. In 2024 alone, the Rural Development Department organized 6 training courses with 338 participants; the Forest Protection Department conducted 1,234 propaganda conferences in villages and hamlets with 15,189 participants, while maintaining the activities of 1,833 propaganda teams on forest protection and forest fire prevention and fighting; the Irrigation Department trained 3,688 people in the dike guard and dike protection force on first-hour dike handling drills, helping to improve the combat skills of this team.

The effectiveness of the project is clearly demonstrated through the ability to respond to natural disasters in practice. In the period from the beginning of 2021 to June 2025, Thanh Hoa province faced 114 natural disasters (including 9 storms, 31 heavy rains, 27 thunderstorms, and many other types of natural disasters). Although the damage was unavoidable with an estimated value of about 2,151 billion VND, thanks to the response system built from the project, Thanh Hoa province promptly deployed many effective measures such as ensuring the safety of dike and irrigation works, emergency harvesting of agricultural products according to the motto "green house is better than old field", instructions on safe anchoring of boats and draining water to prevent flooding, protecting agricultural production...

Although many positive results have been achieved, the implementation of the project still has limitations such as: Community awareness and skills in disaster prevention and control in some places are still limited; the work of overcoming consequences in some localities is still slow; coordination and cooperation between units and localities is sometimes not synchronous, unified, and not very effective, especially in remote areas; facilities, equipment, and means to ensure the forces participating in the implementation of tasks are still lacking, outdated, and do not meet the requirements of the current situation.

To continue improving efficiency in the coming period, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has proposed a number of key solutions, including increasing the annual budget to implement projects to build, upgrade and repair PCTT works (dykes, dams). Improve the capacity to forecast and warn of natural disasters; especially early warning of sudden and rapid natural disasters such as flash floods and landslides. Provide specialized equipment for PCTT, search and rescue, especially means to ensure the safety of ships in coastal areas... Thereby, contributing significantly to minimizing damage, protecting people's lives and property, and at the same time contributing to building a national defense, maintaining political security and social order and safety.

Article and photos: Ngan Ha

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nang-cao-nang-luc-phong-thu-dan-su-nbsp-nhung-ket-qua-dang-ghi-nhan-254725.htm