The Party, State and Government, along with ministries, agencies and localities, have paid attention to natural disaster prevention, with a series of plans and projects put in place.
According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang, the task was performed strongly in 2014.
Decrees instructing on the implementation of the Law on Disaster Prevention were issued, while communication efforts were intensified helping raise public awareness of the law.
Additionally, disaster prevention infrastructure facilities were built and upgraded and a map of areas at high risks of flooding was formed.
By the end of 2014, nearly 750 km of dykes and embankments, and 235 flood control dams were upgraded, and 125 hectares of trees were planted for preventing water.
The National Steering Committee on Disaster Prevention and Control worked closely with ministries, agencies and localities to give swift and detailed instructions on coping with natural disasters, focusing on measures to protect boats operating offshore and in rivers.
The National Meteorology and Hydrology Centre has forecast that Vietnam is likely to face dangerous negative weather in 2015.
In order to proactively deal with disasters, active response measures should be rolled out and activities to evaluate the safety of water reservoirs, dykes and other infrastructure facilities must take place, the centre said.
Disasters across the country in 2014 left 113 people dead or missing. They also damaged nearly 2,000 houses, submerged 230,000 hectares of rice and crops and destroyed many traffic and irrigation works, causing a total estimated loss of over 2.8 trillion VND (nearly 129 million USD).-VNA
