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In the morning of November 30, 2019, in Thua Thien Hue province, an Art Programme to look back 20 years of the extreme flood in the Central region with the theme of "Closely holding hands, building a new life" was organized by the Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control in coordination with a number of ministries, sectors and the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province. On this occasion, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter to people, soldiers and working forces involving in disaster prevention, search and rescue of central coastal provinces and cities.



MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Standing Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control, having opening speech 

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) - Standing Deputy Chairman of Central Steering Committee on Disaster Prevention and Control has participated the Programme; Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hiep - MARD Deputy Minister; Mr. Tran Quang Hoai - General Director of the Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA) - Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control; Mr. Le Huy Ngo - former MARD Minister; representatives of relevant ministries, sectors and agencies. Participants from Thua Thien Hue province included Mr. Phan Ngoc Tho, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and representatives from relevant agencies and sponsors.

MARD Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep spoke at the event

The Programme "Closely holding hands, building a new life" was broadcasted live on the TRT channel of Thua Thien Hue Radio and Television. The Programme started at 8.am on Saturday, November 30, 2019 and was also broadcasted at the same time on other Radio and Television of Central provinces. During the past one month, people, authority and organizations of the Central region implemented many programmes and activities to assess and review the historical flood, summarized lessons and experiences, at the same time, identified challenges in the future.

The Programme "Closely holding hands, building a new life" reviewed painful images, memories, the resilient struggle of people, the fierce participation of the entire political system in the flood in 1999 through the reappearance of the Programme "Looking back 20 years of the extreme flood in Central region" - The historic flood was like a "Deluge", caused so much pain, loss of life and properties for the Central region. In particular, Thua Thien Hue is the province that suffered the most damage.

Chairman of Thua Thien - Hue Provincial People's Committee Phan Ngoc Tho spoke at the Programme.

20 years have passed, people of the Central region, in general and Thua Thien Hue, in particular have turned their grief into action and loss into vigor, and the local authorities and people have striven constantly, and there are strong economic and social developments. Especially, the capacity of natural disaster prevention and control has been improved, enhanced, improving the physical and mental life, at the same time, safer than before natural disasters.


Ms. Pham Thi Ai Nhi, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Thua Thien - Hue province, representing people of Thua Thien - Hue province and Mr. Truong Phuoc Ty, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Nam province, representing people of Quang Nam province received the gift of support for building 50 resilient houses from Ms. Truong Thi Ngoc Anh, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front.

During the past one month, people, authorities and organizations had implemented many Programmes and activities to evaluate and review the historical flood, summarize lessons and experiences, and at the same time, identified challenges in the future.


Sharing with the pain and loss of people in the Central areas, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong emphasized that Vietnam, in general and the Central areas, in particular are always under the impact of natural disasters and this is the thing everyone understands and shares; The 1999 "Deluge" was one of those traumatic memories that no one want to see. Today, we look back on the losses for the system of government at all levels and the community to raise awareness and be prepared to respond to natural disasters that are increasingly complicated and unpredictable. Although there were achievements, the Minister asked the authorities at all levels, the forces working in natural disaster prevention and control, the armed forces and people to regularly raise their awareness and capacity in disaster prevention and to proactively respond in adverse situations to ensure the safety of life and property of the state and people, not subjective to natural disasters at all angles.

Regarding its direction, the Minister praised Thua Thien Hue province for building a pilot model of the Office of the Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Search & Rescue at provincial level, from investing in material facilities and human resources, making points in two districts and two communes to unifiedly direct under the "4 on-the-spot" motto.

The Minister proposed that Thua Thien Hue should continue to develop and promote more aspects of a typical locality on the natural disaster prevention work, at the same time, to share experiences for other localities in the region and across the country to implement.

In order to proactively prevent and minimize the damage caused by major natural disasters which may occur in the near future, especially the repeated 60-year cycle of the floods in 1964, leaders of the Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Search & Rescue proposed authorities at all levels, forces for preventing natural disasters, armed forces and people:

Regularly raising the awareness and capacity of natural disaster prevention and control, not neglecting, being caught off guard and proactively responding to adverse situations to ensure the safety of life and property of the State and people; Enhancing the application of science and technology; improving the capacity of forecasting, monitoring and warning the communication information to serve the direction work and providing timely information to people; Improving operational efficiency and ensure the safety of natural disaster prevention facilities such as reservoirs, shelters for people and boats; Investing for disaster prevention and control, infrastructure systems, search and rescue equipment, contact information, and support tools for decision making management; consolidating and improving the operational capacity of the grassroots assault force; Regularly implementing the education and propaganda of laws, knowledge and skills to prevent natural disasters in society, focusing on students and vulnerable subjects, ethnic minorities; Implementing the integration of natural disaster prevention and control into socio-economic development planning at local levels and sectors; And, for Thua Thien Hue province, I propose to continue to develop and promote more aspects of a typical locality on natural disaster prevention; at the same time, sharing experiences for other localities in the region and across the country to implement.

Accompanying with the Programme were participations and supports of Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank, Ba Na Cable Car Joint Stock Company. In addition, the Central Relief Committee also donated a gift worth VND 2 billion to support the construction of 50 safe houses before the disaster for the affected households of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces; Vietnam Plant Seed Group Joint Stock Company (Vinaseed) donates 125 houses worth VND 5 billion to people in Thua Thien Hue province.

Including in this chain of activities was the International Workshop on "Natural Disaster Risk Management related to water in the Central Region" and the Announcement Ceremony of Thua Thien Hue Province's completion of a typical provincial construction plan on natural disaster prevention in the afternoon of November 29, 2019, chaired by the leader of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search & Rescue.

Also on this occasion, MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong and the Delegations returned to Dragon Village (Thuan An town, Phu Vang district) to offer incenses to pray for the victims killed in the historic flood at the end of 1999. They visited, gave gifts to a number of households there on the evening of November 29, 2019.

Some performance activities at the Programme:

 

Department of Community-based Natural Disaster - VNDMA