July 08, 2021 | 19:41 (GMT+7)
The military urged to take the lead in natural disaster prevention
PANO - The military and public security forces are major forces in effective natural disaster prevention and control, said Deputy Prime Minister (PM) Le Van Thanh at a meeting on July 7 in Hanoi, in response to the complicated developments of the latest tropical depression and heavy rains in northern and north central provinces.
At the event, Mai Van Khiem, Director of the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting informed the attendees that the tropical depression was just south of Hainan Island, China. The wind speed has ranged from level 6 to level 9. On the afternoon of July 7, the tropical depression headed to the Gulf of Tonkin. As a result, heavy rains occurred in Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces with rainfall from 100-200mm. Meanwhile, heavy rains in Hanoi caused flooding and affected public traffic. Khiem warned that downpours in northern midland and mountainous provinces are likely to trigger flash floods and landslides.
According to a representative of the Vietnam Border Guard Command, the border guard force worked closely with local authorities to inform local people of the developments of the tropical depression and call on them to take refuge or move to safer areas.
In his concluding speech, Deputy PM Thanh, Head of the Central Steering Committee for National Disaster Prevention and Control, urged relevant forces to take action to minimize losses.
He requested the center to boost international cooperation to improve forecasting accuracy and asked other ministries and departments to coordinate with each other to effectively prevent natural disasters. He reminded involved forces to pay due attention to COVID-19 control during natural disaster prevention.
He also called for more suggestions on equipment purchases to raise the efficiency of natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue.
Translated by Mai Huong