(Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) - The southernmost CaMau Province People’s Committee has ordered local authorities to protect peopleand property from natural disasters by inspecting dykes and solving erosion andflooding incidents as soon as possible.
Local agencies have also been told to raisepublic awareness about erosion and relocate households in erosion-prone areasto safe areas.
The province’s Department of Agriculture andRural Development will work with coastal districts to review the status oferoded areas and erosion-prone areas.
This year in the province, two have died, threewere injured, and 18 were missing following rainstorms, whirlwinds, strong seawaves and high tides. Thirteen fishing boats also sank.
Whirlwinds this year flattened 15 houses andblew the roofs off of 15 houses and one school.
In addition, erosion has occurred along 2km ofriverbanks and affected 75 houses.
Natural disasters have caused property damageworth more than 5.6 billion VND (246,000 USD) this year, according to theprovince’s steering committee for flood and storm control and prevention,natural disaster mitigation, search and rescue.
On June 18, three houses fell into the river aftera serious erosion case in Cai Nuoc District’s Tran Thoi Commune.
On the same day, erosion 25 metres long andthree metres wide occurred along an embankment in Ngoc Hien District’s Dat MuiCommune.
In U Minh District, local authorities have setup plans to relocate 720 households along dykes where the erosion occurs.
Ngo Thanh Dien, deputy head of the U MinhDistrict Natural Disaster Control and Prevention, Search and Rescue Board, saidnearly 40 percent of the district’s 755 fishing boats are small and used for near-shorefishing.
Most of the small boats are not equipped withcommunication facilities, so rescue efforts can be difficult.
In addition, public awareness about flood/stormcontrol and prevention is still limited, he said.
The lack of facilities for prevention andcontrol of natural disasters, research and rescue has also contributed to theproblem. – VNA
VNA