Helping fishermen overcome difficulties after the storm

Storm No. 13 swept through, causing heavy damage to the fishing villages of Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces. A series of fishing boats, cages, and ponds were swept away, sunk, or damaged, with estimated damage reaching hundreds of billions of VND.

Risk of losing livelihood

In the De Gi lagoon area ( Gia Lai province), the storm left behind a scene of devastation. Houses, infrastructure and fishing equipment of coastal fishermen were severely damaged. On the lagoon surface, we recorded many fishing boats lying haphazardly, some were broken, some were stranded, and some had completely sunk to the bottom of the lagoon.

Fishermen use trucks to pull a stranded fishing boat at De Gi lagoon (Gia Lai province)

Fisherman Khong Trong Hieu (52 years old, An Quang Dong village, De Gi commune) has a 420CV boat that sank, and has not found a way to salvage it. “The fishing industry has been losing money for a long time, continuously losing money. Now the boat has sunk, all the fishing gear has been washed away. The most worrying thing is that the cost of salvaging and pulling the boat up is very expensive, tens of millions of dong, but now there is nothing left in hand,” fisherman Khong Trong Hieu said sadly.

Also in De Gi commune, since the morning of November 10, fisherman Tran Van Tam (34 years old, Chanh Loi village) has been busy mobilizing human resources, machinery, and tools to prepare to pull the ship BD-93766-TS which was capsized by the storm and stranded in Dam Thuy lagoon. He said: “Before the storm, I brought the ship deep into the lagoon, anchored with a weight of more than 2.5 tons. But waves up to 6m high broke the anchor, tossed the ship ashore. Now it is severely damaged, many properties were swept away, the damage is huge.”

The Vietnam Red Cross has just decided to deploy emergency relief for people in Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Quang Ngai provinces to overcome the consequences of storm No. 13 and the storm's aftermath with a total value of cash and goods of more than 3.3 billion VND.

KHANH NGUYEN

Four days after the storm, in the Vung Chao area (Song Cau ward, Dak Lak province), many fishing boats were broken by strong winds and high tides, lying on top of each other. The sound of cranes, welders, and hammers echoed throughout the wharf. The boat owners tried to salvage and repair them to salvage their means of livelihood. Some boats were so badly damaged that the boat owners could only use the machinery, leaving the rest completely behind. Fisherman Ngo Van Vuong (Xuan Dai ward) sadly said: "My boat is broken, now I have to hire a crane to pull the boat up, if it can be repaired, I will repair it, if not, I will only keep the engine. The cost of repairing a boat is now very high, a slightly damaged boat costs 20-30 million VND, a severely damaged boat costs hundreds of millions of VND. I don't know how I will go out to sea to make a living, how I will pay off the bank loan."

Hope for debt extension and debt cancellation

According to Cat Khanh Border Guard Station (located at De Gi estuary, Gia Lai province), storm No. 13 caused heavy damage to fishermen in the De Gi lagoon area. Preliminary statistics show that 7 fishing boats were sunk by waves, 20 boats were damaged and 10 boats ran aground. In the days after the storm, functional units are coordinating to support fishermen in finding partners, and developing plans to salvage and repair sunken, damaged and stranded boats. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Ngoc Duong, Head of Cat Khanh Border Guard Station, said: "The number of sunken and damaged boats is large, so the repair is very difficult. The unit is surveying to propose support plans, and at the same time guiding people to work with shipping companies to hire salvage vehicles and protect property."

In Xuan Dai Bay (Dak Lak Province), Song Cau Ward residents suffered the most damage after Storm No. 13. Statistics show that the entire ward had 30 fishing boats and 70 motorboats damaged; 60%-70% of local aquaculture cages were swept away and damaged. In the lobster farming area alone, 1,600 cages of more than 2,000 households (including 700 commercial cages and 900 nursery cages) were damaged, with an estimated total loss of more than 20 billion VND.

Mr. Vo Ngoc Thach, Chairman of Song Cau Ward People's Committee, informed that the locality has proposed the Central Government and the province to consider providing emergency support to aquaculture households, including proposing the banking system to postpone, extend or cancel debts for households that have suffered heavy losses. Now that people have suffered great losses, they really need a humane solution to help them have the motivation to recover and restore their profession.

On November 10, the Hue City Civil Defense Command issued an official dispatch requesting the People's Committees of communes and wards to conduct surveys and mark the highest flood marks during the flood from October 25 to November 3 in the premises of agencies, schools, low-lying roads, public works and flood warning towers in the locality with red paint. The data will be reported to the Department of Science and Technology to update the digital flood map to serve the work of natural disaster prevention in Hue City.

VAN THANG

NGOC OAI

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/cung-giup-ngu-dan-vuot-kho-sau-bao-du-post822837.html