A warning sign for an erosion site in Tan Phu Thanh commune of Chau Thanh A district, the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang (Photo: VNA) HCMCity (VNS/VNA) - More effective plans for natural disasterprevention are needed in the Mekong Delta, which plays an important role in theeconomy, but is threatened by natural disasters, climate change and landslides,Nguyen Truong Son, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Disaster ManagementAuthority, said in Can Tho city on July 29.
In the first six months of the year, heavy rainsflooded many regions in the country, causing significant loss of life andproperty, he said at the “Prevention of Disaster in Southern Provinces”seminar.
Nguyen Hiep of the Vietnam Disaster ManagementAuthority said the agency in the last six months of this year would work withsouthern cities and provinces to set up a disaster-prevention and relocationplan for households living in coastal areas.
Local authorities would be tasked to check areasfacing a high risk of landslides and move residents to safe places, whileworkers will be assigned to guard roads at risk of being inundated by water, hesaid.
In the first half of the year, 75 people werekilled or missing while 48 others were injured during natural disasters. Totaleconomic damages reached 868.5 billion VND (37.73 million USD), according to theCentral Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.
A total of 14 kinds of natural disastersoccurred in the country during the period, including two typhoons, two tropicaldepressions, 88 thunderstorms, seven flash floods, numerous landslides, sevenstrong wind spells overseas, and four extreme cold spells, among others.
In total, 509 houses were destroyed, whileanother 12,571 were damaged. Fifteen thousand hectares of rice and 1,700 ha ofindustrial plantations also suffered damage, while nearly 9,000 fowl and 17,000cattle were killed due to natural disasters.
In the remaining half of the year, Vietnam canexpect 12-13 typhoons, with at least four or five making landfall, according tothe National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.
Last year, 16 storms and six tropicaldepressions formed in the East Sea. Of the number, five storms and threetropical depressions hit Vietnam.
Severe disasters resulted in 386 people dead andmissing, 122 more people than in 2016, and 86 more than the average number ofthe past decade.
Economic losses amounted to 60 trillion VND (2.6billion USD), a 30 percent increase compared with 2016, and 2.5 times higherthan the average of the past decade.-VNS/VNA
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