Weather forecasting capacity needs to be improved further
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong asked the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control to continue improving its forecast and coordination capacity to minimize damage caused by natural disasters in 2019.
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He was addressing the General Department’s conference to review its 2018 performance and launch its tasks in 2019 in Hanoi on December 21.
The General Department needs to pay special attention to giving warnings and applying scientific advances in preventing and fighting natural disasters.
It should speed up the building and implementation of strategies, programmes and plans, such as the national natural disaster prevention and control plan, the master plan on preventing riverbank and coastal erosion, and the master plan on relocating residents living in areas constantly affected by natural disasters, the minister said.
In 2018, floods in the Mekong delta cost no lives though it was of the same level as that in 2011 when it took the lives of 89 people. The results were attributed to local authorities and community’s pro-active preparations and sufficient investment into infrastructure, plus prompt instructions given by the Prime Minister and the steering committee on response to flood, he said.
As by December 20, 2018, the country suffered 13 typhoons and low pressure depressions, 14 flash floods and landslides, 11 heat waves, 23 cold spells, and more, which caused a total economic loss of 20 trillion VND and left 218 people died and missing
