Thanh Hoa(VNA) – Natural disasters have taken a heavy toll on the north-central provinceof Thanh Hoa over recent years. To be more resilient to the disasters thisyear, the province has been repairing and upgrading dykes and other irrigationsystems as the rainy season is just around the corner.

In March, the provincialDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development issued an official dispatch todirect the People's Committees of districts and companies that manageirrigation works to inspect them before the start of the rainy season.

The department has directedlocalities to develop disaster and emergency response plans for reservoirs. Italso told localities to run trial of pumping stations, drains and flooddischarge systems of reservoirs to ensure they are functioning properly.

In the mountainousdistrict of Quan Hoa, the local People’s Committee has adopted a plan onnatural disaster control and rescue for this rainy season with a focus on flashflood and land slide control, prevention of flood at and in lower plainssurrounding reservoirs, and evacuation of people living in flood-prone areas.

The district hasmade efforts to promptly repair and upgrade dykes and reservoirs and mobilizedpersonnel to dredge canals and clean up waterways so as to prevent flood. Ithas developed different scenarios to deal with reservoir emergencies in townsand communes in the lower plains of hydroelectric reservoirs, such as TrungThanh, Thanh Son, Phu Thanh, Phu Xuan, and Hoi Xuan. At the same time, it hasraised awareness among the local people of siren sound that will warn them ofthe sudden water flow discharge from hydropower plants in their areas.

Head of thedistrict’s agriculture department Do Phi Hung said Quan Hoa has providedtraining for local people to increase their awareness of how to respond to thedisasters. It has implemented the plan to control flash flood and landslide ineach hamlet and village, as well as installed warning signs at risky areas, henoted.

Flood-pronecommunes have formed surveillance teams as well as search and rescue, andmedical teams assigned with specific tasks during the rainy season.Additionally, the communes must deploy local people to keep a 24/7 watch ofreservoirs to promptly cope with any emergency and ease damage and lossescaused by floods.

Authorities inThieu Hoa district have also formulated plans on natural disaster preventionand search and rescue missions, and worked around the clock to speed up theprogress of dyke projects. The district has stockpiled 7,300 packages, 145 lifejackets, 400 sqm of canvas of different types, and 1,700 bamboo poles to get preparedagainst floods.

It has cooperatedwith relevant agencies to remove difficulties and fast-track the project thatrepairs a section of dykes on the right bank of Chu River, which was behind theschedule.

Thieu Hoa has vieweddisaster control and prevention, and search and rescue mission as two among thedistrict’s most important tasks, said Vice Chairman of the district’s PeopleCommittee Nguyen The Anh. Similar to Quan Hoa, Thieu Hoa has also set upsurveillance teams to keep a close watch on dykes and fix those sustaining damagefrom the flood season last year.

To gear up for therainy season, the provincial Department of Dyke Management and Flood, StormControl has plans in hand to evacuate the locals living along rivers andstreams prone to flash flood and landslide, and to ensure sufficient personneland materials for disaster control.

Thanh Hoa has over 1,000 km ofdykes, 610 reservoirs, 1,023 spillways, 885 pumping stations and 14 largedrains that take daily wastewater to rivers.

The provincial Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development has warned that 131 reservoirs in 16districts and towns do not meet safety standards as the rainy season hasarrived. The rainy season runs from July to October.

Of the unsafe reservoirs, 124were reported unsafe in 2018 and seven others during this year’s pre-floodinspections.

Most spillways in the provincehave small capacities and an average height of about 5 metres. Many were notconstructed solidly enough to withstand heavy rain or flooding, and were easilydamaged or washed away.

Thirty-six spillways in sixdistricts were partly damaged during the 2018 flood season. Fourteen were inLang Chanh District, 13 in Ngoc Lac, five in Quan Hoa, three in Nhu Xuan andone in Nhu Thanh.

Mostly built in the 1980s,pumping stations (including drainage and irrigation stations) were designedwith low capacities and now have outdated machinery and equipment.  These stations have not been upgraded due toa lack of funding, resulting in poor performance, reduced capacity and highenergy consumption. -VNA