Police officers check a landslide spot on the Tra Noc River in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho's Tra An Ward. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked sectors and localities to devise plans to cope with natural disasters.

Speaking during a video conference on natural disaster prevention and control and search rescue work held in Hanoi on Friday, Phuc asked for the focus to be put on ensuring public safety, while shoring up dykes and irrigation works, especially in the northern mountainous, central, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta regions.

He noted that mountainous provinces, especially the northern mountainous region, needed plans to cope with flash floods and landslides, while central provinces should have measures in place to cope with heavy floods. Central Highlands provinces were asked to prevent flooding while Mekong Delta provinces must be able to cope with strong storms, drought and saltwater intrusion.

The PM called for prioritising resources from the State budget and policies to improve the efficiency of the effort.

The Central Steering Committee on Disaster Prevention and Control and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were assigned to ensure the safety of 200 dykes and irrigation works, cultivate crops adapted to disasters, and ensure food security.

The National Committee on Disaster Response and Search and Rescue and the Ministry of National Defence were responsible for pooling equipment to cope with disasters and holding response drills.

PM Phuc also lauded the entire political system for promptly engaging in the effort. He also hailed more accurate disaster forecasting.

Last year, the Government spent more than VND10.3 trillion (US$447 million) from the central budget and other sources to support post-disaster recovery.

Thanks to sci-tech application and international cooperation, a number of solutions had been recently taken to ease drought in the Mekong Delta, he said.

Facing the complicated developments of natural disasters, the PM urged ministries, agencies and localities to fully grasp and follow the Secretariat’s Decree No42-CT/TW on strengthening Party leadership on disaster prevention and control, as well as strengthening disaster prevention and control from the central to grassroots levels.

Since the beginning of this year, the country has suffered seven downpours and hailstorms, serious drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, and 11 earthquakes and landslides.

As of late April, these disasters had left 11 dead or missing, and destroyed or damaged more than 44,000 houses and over 100,000ha of crops. The total economic loss was estimated at over VND3.1 trillion.

According to the National Centre for Hydrometeorology Forecast, about 11-13 storms and tropical low pressure fronts would hit the East Sea between now and the year-end, with 5-6 making landfall in the central and southern regions. VNS

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