Violations of the law on dykes are becoming more and more serious and increasing in many places
According to a report at the Conference of Chairman of the People's Committees of districts, provinces and cities with dikes from grade III to special grade in 2022, in Vietnam, the dyke system has a history of thousands of years of formation and development. It plays a particularly important role not only as a flood prevention and control project, but also as historical evidence, bearing many of the past imprints of the Vietnamese people in the struggle for survival in the face of natural disasters. flood.
Violations of the law on dykes have increased under the pressure of socio-economic development activities. (Photo provided by the Dike Management Department).
Up to now, Vietnam has built a very large system of dike works, with a length of about 9,220 km of dykes (6,458 km of river dykes, 1,171 km of estuary dykes, 1,320 km of sea dykes). In which, more than 2,740 km of dykes are classified from grade III to special grade, along with a huge number of works on the route, with more than 1,035 km of embankment protection, 1,563 sluices under the dike, 632 warehouses and material yards. reserve for prevention and control of floods and storms, 1,405 dike guarding stations, etc. In addition, the Mekong River Delta also has about 44,545 km of dikes and embankments with the main task of preventing seasonal floods.
Along with the reservoir system upstream of rivers, contributing to flood mitigation and regulation, the dyke system plays a particularly important role as a strong stronghold against natural disasters such as floods and storms, protecting lives and property. property of the State and the people as well as the achievements of socio-economic development.
Experiencing many stages with changes in the name and organization of the dyke management and flood control apparatus, today, the Dike Management Department under the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (DRR) is the agency. The Central Government is assigned the task of State management in the field of dykes throughout the country.
In the provinces and cities with dikes, the dike controller team is organized into Dike Management Districts under the Dike Management and Flood Prevention Sub-Departments/Irrigation Sub-Departments under the Department of Agriculture and Development. rural development (Agriculture and Rural Development) - this is the core force, directly managing more than 2,740 km of dikes from grade III to special grade.
Mr. Tran Cong Tuyen - Director of the Dike Management Department
Although there are still many limitations and shortages in terms of both facilities and human resources, the organization and management of the dike system is always focused and implemented in a serious and methodical manner.
Every year, before the rainy season, the Dike Management Department advises the General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control to submit the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to issue a Directive to the People's Committees of the provinces and cities, requesting to strengthen the dike management and prepare for it. dyke protection and flood control. At the same time, guide localities to assess the current status of the dyke system, identify key points, develop plans for dike protection and protection and implement in practice according to the motto 4 on the spot. (on-site commanders, on-site forces, on-site vehicle supplies and on-site logistics); focus on training and capacity building for the specialized dike management force and coordinate with the military force to be ready to deploy to respond to dyke protection and flood control.
However, sharing with reporters, Mr. Tran Cong Tuyen - Director of the Dike Management Department (General Department of Disaster Prevention) said that up to now, only over 2,740 km of dikes from grade III to special grade have survived over 242 the key dyke key must develop a protection plan in the flood season; 316 km of dyke is still low, lack of elevation, risk of overflow when meeting design flood; 498 km of dike is still narrow, not enough design cross-section; 174 km of dykes often occurs when there is a flood; 386 old, damaged sewers; 233 km of damaged and weak embankment…
Under the pressure of socio-economic development activities, the demand for land and construction materials is increasing, so the violation of the law on dykes has increased in many localities, especially violations of the law on dykes. gathering materials on a large scale on riverbanks and in dyke protection corridors, illegally building constructions and factories on riverbanks and encroaching on river beds, obstructing flood drainage.
“Many dyke violations have very serious levels and scale of violations. Meanwhile, the prevention and handling of violations is still limited, the number of outstanding violations that have not been handled or handled is still high. In some localities, the licensing of construction works in riverbanks has not yet complied with the provisions of the Dike Law, leading to difficulties in handling and clearing violations when the works have been licensed by the locality. ; In some places, the situation of pushing and evading leads to incomplete handling, causing prolonged complaints," said Tuyen
The area of Long Bien bridge (Hanoi), during the August 1971 flood (above) and Hoang Long left and right dike strained against flood, October 2017.
There is a subjective mentality that overlooks the management, protection, construction and repair of dikes
According to the Director of the Dike Management Department, on the Red River and Thai Binh River systems, there have been no major floods since the 2002 flood, so there has appeared subjective psychology in a large part of people and some people. Local authorities at all levels believe that the current upstream hydropower reservoirs are capable of cutting floods to ensure the safety of the dyke system and downstream areas. This is especially dangerous and poses many challenges for dyke management, protection and consolidation. The subjective opinion that there is no major flood leads to lax management, disregarding the role of the dyke system, less attention to investment in upgrading and strengthening dykes, increasing violations of the law on dykes. .
In the context of climate change, abnormal rain and flood events, although there is a system of regulating lakes in the upstream, if there are extreme heavy rain weather patterns in the Red River basin, Thai Binh river in When the reservoirs are full of water, the risk of large floods is present, which will directly threaten the safety of the dyke system.
Floods and rains caused levees to break, terrible flooding on a large scale in China in early June, affecting more than 70 million people, 271 dead and missing, 4.7 million people having to be urgently displaced, 54,000 houses House destroyed, damage over 35 billion USD.
“If an unfortunate flood occurs, causing the dyke to break on the Red River and Thai Binh river systems, tens of millions of people, a series of big cities, important cultural, economic and political centers of the country such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong ... will be damaged, this is really a national disaster, dragging back the history of our country for decades of development", Mr. Tuyen added.
In fact, in recent years, the impact of climate change has made the situation of floods and storms become increasingly extreme and irregular, causing serious damage to people and properties of many countries. in the world as well as in the country. Floods lasting from July to November 2011 in Thailand made 747 people dead or missing, more than 4.2 million people affected, damage estimated at 45 billion USD; is considered the worst flood in terms of water volume and number of people affected.
In China, continuous heavy rains since the beginning of June 2020 have caused water levels to exceed historic flood levels on 53 rivers, breaking dykes, affecting more than 70 million people, 271 dead and missing. 4.7 million people had to be urgently displaced, 54,000 houses were destroyed, damage was over 35 billion USD. Many experts in the world analyze and believe that the Three Gorges Dam is capable of regulating and cutting floods for the downstream area and overexploiting the riverbank area to build infrastructure for development. Socio-economic reduction of flood drainage space has made the flood situation more serious.
Floods in Thailand in 2011 killed 747 people and caused $45 billion in damage.
However, this is not the worst disaster in China, before that, the Banqiao dam on the Yellow River was built and completed in 1952 with the help of the Soviet Union, in 1975 it collapsed, killing dozens. thousands, official estimates were released two decades later. This is one of the worst disasters of mankind and is named "Black Swan".
Or like many developed countries, having advanced science and technology, accurate forecasting ability as well as investing in construction of dykes and modern flood prevention and control works, they also have to suffer heavy damage due to floods. In Japan, Typhoon Hagibis in 2019 caused rain and floods, leaving 89 people dead or missing, 140 dykes were broken, more than 56,000 houses were destroyed, and economic losses were enormous. Flooding in Europe in July 2021 has killed 260 people (250 people in Germany alone), with an estimated damage of 12 billion USD.
From 2017 to now, floods in our country have been extremely extreme and irregular, with consecutive storms and big floods, especially large, exceeding the historical flood level in consecutive years in 2017, 2018 , 2020. Typically, large floods on the Day, Hoang Long, Ma river systems, etc., 2017, the Hoang Long river flood exceeded the historical flood of 1985 by 29cm, causing 82km of dyke to overflow and approximately overflow, causing out 242 dike incidents; Floods on Bua, Day, Hoang Long, Bui, Buoi rivers exceeded the BD3 level in 2018, especially the flood on Bua river, Phu Tho province exceeded the historical flood in 1975 by 1.26m. In 2020, large and especially large floods occurred on 16 main river routes in the Central region (07 river routes exceeded historical flood water levels) causing particularly serious damage to people and properties.
Faced with the above realities and urgent requirements, the General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control has had many radical and comprehensive solutions combined with innovative and breakthrough solutions that have been applied and implemented, which have brought great results. practical in the management and protection of dykes in particular and natural disaster prevention and control in general.
First of all, the system of legal documents has been studied and completed by the General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control from a very early age; With two sets of laws, namely the Law on Dykes and the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, together with a system of sub-law documents which were developed, reviewed and adjusted in a timely manner, in line with reality, it has brought high efficiency to the management. physical. In addition, the work of guiding, making and approving dike plannings, detailed flood prevention and control plans of river routes with dikes are also interested in implementing, serving as a legal basis for the construction, repairing, upgrading and solidifying dikes...
In addition, the General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control has advised the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to launch the emulation movement "Building model dikes", many model dike lines, many typical dike management districts have been built through the integration into programs. programs, projects, schemes, socio-economic development plans in order to make full use of all resources for dykes. Model dikes not only ensure flood protection according to design, but also clean and beautiful decoration to create landscape and environment, are park dikes, and at the same time make a great contribution to the development of traffic, connectivity, economic, social and cultural exchange and development among regions.
The application of modern technology, information and science in dyke management has initially achieved very encouraging results, such as: Application of unmanned aerial vehicles (flycams) to collect data images, videos of natural disasters, floods in dangerous areas and locations that are difficult or inaccessible to humans; construction and installation of surveillance camera systems, visual monitoring, real-time in key areas of dikes, river confluence areas, water level checkpoints to help support management, timely detecting dangerous incidents, violations of the law on dykes to prevent and handle; Digitizing, building a Web-GIS database system on dykes or applying new technologies and materials in dyke protection and overflow prevention have also been implemented