The Prime Minister requests prevention for drought and intrusion

Due to the influence of El Nino, from the beginning of the year until now, there has been a lack of rainfall in many areas across the country. High temperatures, prolonged heat, drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion happened in some localities, especially in the Mekong Delta and the Central and Central Highlands.

According to forecasts of specialized agencies under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the coming time, the average temperature will tend to be higher than the average for many years, especially in summer. Heat is likely to continue to appear more frequently and more intensely than average for many years. The flood season in the North is unlikely to come early, the flow to large reservoirs on the Da River may be about 30 - 40% short compared to the average of many years. There is a continued risk of heatwaves, droughts, water shortages, and saltwater intrusion, especially in the Central and Southern regions.

To limit damage to production and business and affect people's lives, the Prime Minister requests the Chairman of the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities, Ministers of ministries and heads of relevant agencies to organize close monitoring of the situation, strengthen direction and implementation of solutions to promptly and effectively respond to natural disasters and extreme weather, especially heat, drought, and saltwater intrusion.

In which, Chairman of People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities, especially localities in the Central region and Mekong Delta, need to direct local authorities to closely monitor developments and forecasts on weather, meteorology, hydrology, water sources, and saltwater intrusion; inventory and firmly grasp information about water sources in the area to update local plans and plans for preventing and combating heat, drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion in accordance with water source scenarios.

Comply with the direction and guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant ministries and branches to organize timely implementation with effective solutions to prevent and combat heat, drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion.

In case of water shortage and insufficient supply to meet usage needs, priority must be given to providing enough water for daily life, watering perennial crops with high economic value and other essential needs. Effectively operate the irrigation system to collect water, proactively store water to ensure that it meets the minimum water demand for crops when water shortage occurs, and limit damage to production and business, especially agricultural production.

Arrange local budgets to implement solutions to prevent and combat drought and saltwater intrusion; prioritize allocating funds to accelerate investment in construction, repair, and upgrading of works serving water supply and water source control, especially centralized domestic water supply projects, riverside water intake projects and freshwater reservoirs.

The Prime Minister also directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to proactively and promptly organize specialized monitoring and forecasting of water resources, and saltwater intrusion, provide information to localities and people in affected areas; proactively direct, guide and urge localities to deploy appropriate and effective response measures to reduce damage caused by drought and saltwater intrusion.

Urge the locality to speed up the progress of irrigation and rural water supply projects under construction so they can soon be put into operation and promote efficiency.

At the same time, preside and coordinate with relevant ministries, branches and localities to review and evaluate the impact of lowering water levels on inter-provincial rivers to the ability of irrigation works to take water to find solutions to ensure the operation of irrigation works.

Synthesize and report on the situation of drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion in localities, proactively coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies to review and Propose and report to the Prime Minister to promptly support localities in implementing drought and saltwater intrusion response work according to the provisions of law.

In the directive document, the Prime Minister also requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Construction, The Ministry of Planning and Investment, The Ministry of Finance and News and press agencies carry out tasks to strengthen the implementation of measures to prevent and combat heat, drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion.