Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Nghe An (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the People’s Committee of the central province of Nghe An jointly held a conference on July 22 on strengthening the measures responding to drought, saline water and natural disasters in the north-central region.
Participants analysed the change and the extreme of the weather conditions, seeking solutions related to reservoirs and agriculture restructuring.
According to the Hyro-Meteorological Centre in the Northern Central Region, from the beginning of the year, regional localities have suffered seven heat waves, five of which in May.
Due to the water shortage, 8,200 hectares of crop have been affected and subjected to cultivation structure switching. Along with that, 23,870 hectares of crop have suffered drought.
Meanwhile, saline water intrusion has caused direct impact on about 12,700 hectares of crops in the basins of Ma and Ca rivers.
Luong Van Anh, Vice Director of the Directorate of Water Resources, said that regional localities should increase their capacity in supervising and forecasting water resources and salinity developments by installing automatic monitoring devices, thus actively implementing measures against the phenomena.
Addressing the event, MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that the impact of extreme weather conditions have occurred even faster than the latest scenarios predicted by domestic and foreign experts. The north-central region is being hit hardest by drought, requiring it to respond to the disaster and prepare against the flood season at the same time, he said.
The minister advised the localities to focus on measures to ensure water for daily activities of locals, including setting up mobile water supply stations.
For longer vision, the regional localities should review their conditions to make a master plan to adapt to climate change, while considering the balance between economic structure and water resources./.
VNA
