The Government has issued Resolution 76/NQ-CP on natural disaster prevention and climate change adaptation.

Its specific goal by 2025 is reducing 30 percent of human losses caused by natural disasters with similar intensity and scale to those occurring in 2015-2020.

Authorities at all levels, organisations, and households across the country will receive full information on natural calamities, while training courses will be opened for natural disaster prevention forces to provide them with necessary skills.

According to the resolution, among the general solutions to natural disaster prevention are improving the resilience of infrastructure, reinforcing and upgrading the river and sea dyke systems as well as water reservoirs and storm shelters, and improving water drainage.

At the same time, flooding prevention projects in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will be implemented effectively, in addition to the national target programme on climate change adaptation and green growth.

Investment should be poured into modernisation of natural disaster forecasting and monitoring systems in concentrated residential areas and key socio-economic regions.

The resolution also specifies key measures for each region. In the northern and north-central mountainous regions, it is necessary to identify high risk areas of landslides and flash floods to take prompt prevention measures to mitigate human losses and ensure sustainable livelihoods for locals.

The northern and north-central delta regions should ensure safety of dykes and strictly manage the flood prevention, dyke construction and land use planning schemes.

The northern and central coastal regions will focus on raising the capacity to cope with floods and typhoons and building integrated flood management plans for river basins.

The Central Highlands region will build water supply and storage facilities to serve local daily activities and strengthen supervision of water resources and effective operation of irrigation systems for fresh water reserves, while promoting the use of advanced irrigation solutions to saving water for rice and terrestrial crops.

The Mekong Delta is recommended to implement effectively the Government’s Resolution No.120/NQ-CP dated November 17, 2017 on sustainable and climate-resilient development of the region.

Vietnam is one of the five countries hardest hit by natural disasters. Over the past two decades, natural disasters left over 400 people dead and missing each year, caused economic losses equal to about 1-1.5 percent of GDP, and affected people’s living environment and conditions, as well as socio-economic activities and sustainable development of the country.  

In 2017, a record number of 16 typhoons and four low pressures occurred in the East Sea. The storms claimed the lives of 386 people in the year, damaged more than 600,000 houses and caused economic losses of about 60 trillion VND (2.64 billion USD), with the worst typhoons being Doksuri and Damrey.-VNA