Relevant ministries and agencies must take more timely action to prevent and cope with floods and storms in 2012.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai made the request on March 3 at a national conference in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, to review flood and storm prevention and control and search and rescue operations in 2011 and put forth key tasks for 2012.
Last year, Vietnam was hit by seven storms and seven tropical low pressure systems, especially the floods in the Mekong Delta region late in the year negatively affected national socio-economic development.
Natural disasters resulted in 295 people missing or dead and more than VND12,000 billion in damages.
Many localities have not paid due attention to preventing such catastrophes. They were passive in search and rescue activities when disasters occurred because they lacked appropriate equipment and facilities. There is also insufficient communication and information dissemination in some remote and mountainous areas and vessels operating on the sea have not strictly followed safety regulations.
(VOV)
