After the historic super typhoon, the entire greenhouse growing flowers and vegetables of Mr. Dao Truong and Ms. Doan Thu Tra's family in Thuong Tin ( Hanoi ) was devastated. Photo: TQ
Hope to have capital soon to restore production
Storm No. 3 has passed for more than ten days, but Mr. Dao Truong and his wife, Ms. Doan Thu Tra, in Thuong Tin (Hanoi) are still shocked and terrified. “We have never witnessed such a terrible storm. After just one night, the entire greenhouse, vegetable garden, and flower garden of our family and neighbors were devastated. In particular, the newly built greenhouse with very sturdy steel frames was blown away by the storm and collapsed,” Mr. Truong sadly recounted.
It has been many days since the natural disaster, and he and his wife still cannot sleep. Every time it gets dark, the terrifying memories of the storm come flooding back, his wife covers her face and cries, making him even more confused and worried.
“After many years of “sweating and crying” morning and night, experimenting, doing business, and saving up a little money to invest in new technology in production, spending billions of dong, now everything is just ruins and desolation. We don’t know how to start over,” Mr. Truong confided.
More tragically, the farm in Cao Bang , where the couple had placed high hopes, would save the farm in the capital, but after the storm, the influence of the circulation caused heavy rain, causing the entire farm here to be flooded, causing severe damage.
The multi-billion-dong melon farm of Ms. Doan Thi Doi's family in Tam Da commune, Vinh Bao district ( Hai Phong city ) was severely damaged after storm No. 3. Photo: TQ
Although the greenhouse was devastated by the storm, Mrs. Doan Thi Doi and her husband in Tam Da commune, Vinh Bao district (Hai Phong city) have not yet cleaned it up. When we visited the garden, the couple still welcomed us and showed us around the garden, but the homeowner's face was still very sad and sorrowful.
“Everything is devastated, we don’t know where to start. Now we want to clean up the camp to resume production but there is no more money to do it, we are so heartbroken, it feels like our “guts are being torn apart”, Mrs. Doi sadly shared.
Ms. Doi said that after many years of saving money, she and her husband decided to invest in building a greenhouse to grow high-tech melons for eco-tourism, but now everything has to be abandoned.
“We farmers have a hard time farming. We want to do big things, but when we fail, we are left empty-handed,” Ms. Doi confided.
Ms. Doi added that after the natural disaster, her family also received timely support from local authorities and Farmers' Associations at all levels calling for help in rescuing many tons of young melons. However, to restore production, her family really hopes to receive preferential loans from the government and banks.
“After the storm, everyone suffered heavy losses. If the government and banks do not have policies and timely preferential loan support, we farmers will not be able to restore production,” said Ms. Doi, adding that no one wants natural disasters. People are not afraid of hardship or failure, but the most important thing is that people want timely support and assistance to overcome difficulties.
A new rural road in Dong Tam village, Yen Thanh commune, Quang Binh district (Ha Giang) is littered with rocks and soil after a flash flood. Photo: TQ
New rural commune in disarray and desolation after natural disaster
In the days after storm No. 3, following a working group from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to inspect the damage in Dong Tam village, Yen Thanh commune, Quang Binh district (Ha Giang), we witnessed many houses, crops, and properties of the people here being severely damaged by flash floods, causing everyone to be very sad.
Once a "bright spot" in the new rural construction of Quang Binh, after the historic flash flood, many infrastructures, houses, roads... in Yen Thanh commune were severely damaged. Talking to us, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Khanh, Chairman of Yen Thanh Commune People's Committee, said that the commune had reached the new rural finish line since 2021, but after the natural disaster, many criteria such as roads, electricity, houses, income... were at risk of slipping away again. The most tragic thing is that the poverty rate in the locality has increased.
Leading the working group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the area where flash floods and landslides had just occurred in his village, Mr. Phan Van Canh, Head of Dong Tam village, said that when there was information that storm No. 3 was making landfall, the locality had notified people to be on guard against flash floods and landslides. However, on the night of September 8 to 9, heavy rain came and raged continuously for many hours, when a loud explosion sounded on the high mountains, many people in the village fled in panic.
“At that time, everyone was terrified and ran away. The next day, the weather cleared up and everyone returned to see that everything had been flattened,” said Mr. Canh, adding that up to now, of the 86 households in the village, 37 were affected, and 7 had their houses, barns, and property swept away by the flood.
“Since the natural disaster, with timely support from authorities at all levels and the community, many people who lost their homes have been relocated to safe temporary shelters, and people have been fully supported with necessities,” Mr. Canh added.
According to Mr. Canh, people are currently still fully supported in everything, but what they want now is to rebuild new houses in a safe area to stabilize their lives and restore production.
“After the historic flash flood and landslide, up to now, the villagers are terrified and do not dare to return to their old place of residence, so we really hope that the local government will soon find a new area and build new houses, support trees, seeds, and provide technical guidance on production so that the villagers can rest assured to restore a stable and long-term life,” the head of Dong Tam village suggested.
In Yen Bai, Mr. Nguyen The Phuoc - Standing Vice Chairman of Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee is also very worried when talking about the damage to traffic infrastructure, electricity, roads, schools, stations... after the natural disaster. "Everything is in disarray, devastated, and ruined after the storm and flood. Due to the huge damage, the province is planning to postpone the implementation of the new rural model criteria to concentrate resources on overcoming the consequences and consolidating and rebuilding the new rural criteria in communes and districts," Mr. Phuoc confided.
Ms. Phan Thi Nguyen in Dong Tam village, Yen Thanh commune is still in shock after the flash flood and landslide that just occurred in the locality. Photo: TQ
Need to adjust post-disaster support levels more appropriately
In the opinions and recommendations of provincial leaders sent to the working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Chiem Hoa district (Tuyen Quang) said: Up to now, the whole district has 300 households severely affected by floods, of which 53 households lost their homes; over 974 hectares of rice, nearly 500 hectares of corn, 1,500 pigs, 9,000 poultry were swept away by flood waters... The district has a preliminary estimate of damage of up to nearly 100 billion VND.
Mr. Dung added that before, during and after the floods, local authorities at all levels have been taking drastic measures to support and evacuate people while preventing and overcoming the consequences caused by natural disasters. Up to now, the electricity and communication systems have been uninterrupted, however, the whole commune still has 140 households at risk of landslides that need urgent evacuation, many households are facing difficulties...
“We hope that the Government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and relevant ministries and branches will soon support the planning plan to relocate households from dangerous areas. At the same time, the locality hopes to support food for local people for at least 4 months and support plants and seeds for people to grow the winter crop early to have local products to feed their families and stabilize their lives and activities after the natural disaster,” Mr. Dung suggested.
Reflecting to members of the working group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, leaders of Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang, Yen Bai provinces... said that after the natural disaster, we have seen that many support policies for people are still very low, some policies are no longer suitable for reality and need to be revised and supplemented immediately.
According to leaders of some northern mountainous provinces, the current level of post-disaster risk support according to Decree 02 of the Government is very low and not suitable to reality, so it is necessary to adjust it to be more reasonable. Photo: TQ
Standing Vice Chairman of Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee Nguyen The Phuoc stated that currently, the support level according to Decree 02 (Decree No. 02/2017/ND-CP of the Government on mechanisms and policies to support agricultural production to restore production in areas damaged by natural disasters and epidemics) is very low and no longer suitable to reality.
For example, support of 2 million VND/ha of pure rice, while people suffered losses of up to 30-40 million VND and administrative procedures were too cumbersome.
“We hope that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will propose to the Government and relevant agencies to revise the above decree to suit actual conditions, creating motivation for people to confidently restore production after natural disasters. In the immediate future, while waiting for the decree to be revised, we hope that the Prime Minister will allow localities to mobilize and use resources to support people who have just suffered damage to quickly overcome the consequences and restore production effectively,” the leader of Yen Bai province proposed.
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