Prime Minister: Overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, ensuring learning conditions for students

Military forces clean up mud at Suoi Lu Kindergarten, Dien Bien. (Photo: Trung Kien/VNA)

Military forces clean up mud at Suoi Lu kindergarten, Dien Bien . (Photo: Trung Kien/VNA)

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has just signed Document No. 931/TTg-NN dated August 5, 2025 requesting ministries, branches and localities to focus on overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, stabilizing people's lives, and ensuring learning conditions for students before the new school year.

Since the beginning of 2025, natural disasters have been complicated and unusual; in late July and early August, heavy rains caused historic floods, flash floods, landslides in many localities in the mountainous and midland regions of the North and North Central regions, causing serious damage to people, property, infrastructure, and greatly affecting production and people's lives, especially in the provinces of Dien Bien, Son La and Nghe An .

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment's summary as of August 5, the recent heavy rains, flash floods, and landslides alone left 20 people dead and missing, 20 injured, 1,003 houses collapsed and swept away, 6,863 houses damaged, 519 households had to be urgently evacuated, 60 schools, 10 medical centers were damaged, over 7,400 hectares of rice and crops were damaged, many energy, telecommunications, transportation, and irrigation works were eroded and damaged, causing traffic disruption, power outages, and communication interruptions. The total economic loss is estimated at over 4,800 billion VND.

General Secretary To Lam and leaders of the Party and State sent their warmest regards and condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones, to the Party committees, authorities, military and people of localities that suffered heavy losses due to natural disasters. The Government and the Prime Minister have focused on leadership, direction, and promptly issued directive documents to closely follow the developments of the natural disaster situation. The Prime Minister directly inspected, inspected and worked with the Standing Committee of the Dien Bien Provincial Party Committee to direct the implementation of flood and storm recovery work, and assigned Deputy Prime Ministers Tran Hong Ha, Le Thanh Long, Ho Duc Phoc and Mai Van Chinh to represent the Government to directly inspect and direct the response and recovery work, visit and encourage people in flood-affected areas in the provinces of Dien Bien, Son La and Nghe An.

Desolation in Chieng So commune, Son La province after flash floods. (Photo: Quang Quyet/VNA)

Party committees and authorities at all levels in Dien Bien, Son La and Nghe An provinces have been very responsible, "close to the people", proactive, active and determined in implementing the work of responding to and overcoming the consequences of floods; the entire political system, forces and the entire population have joined in, the motto of "four on-site", the spirit of "mutual love", "national love", "compatriotism" has been strongly promoted; shining examples of responsibility have appeared such as Head of Mua A Thi village.

The Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and relevant ministries and branches have closely monitored the situation, proactively and promptly deployed response and recovery work for floods; the corporations: Military Telecommunications, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications, Vietnam Electricity, Vietnam National Industry and Energy have actively and proactively participated with localities in overcoming the consequences through mobilizing forces and providing material support.

Currently, it is the peak period of the rainy and stormy season in the North and North Central regions, in the context of preparing to enter the new school year 2025-2026, to focus on overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, quickly stabilizing the people's situation and proactively responding to natural disasters in the coming time, the Prime Minister requested

On urgent tasks and solutions

The Secretaries and Chairmen of the People's Committees of Dien Bien, Son La, Nghe An provinces and localities affected by recent natural disasters and floods must focus on leading, directing and implementing the work of overcoming the consequences of natural disasters with the most urgent and drastic spirit to quickly stabilize people's lives; ensure that people do not lack food, clothing, hunger, cold, or have no place to live; ensure that all students must go to school on time for the opening ceremony; patients are rescued and treated promptly, focusing on a number of tasks: organizing free treatment for the injured; taking care of the funerals of the deceased, promptly supporting victims according to regulations; reviewing and promptly organizing relief teams for food, foodstuffs, and necessities for households at risk of hunger, especially households that have lost their homes and families with preferential policies.

Focus on quickly repairing damaged essential infrastructure works, especially transportation works (serving the transportation of relief goods and people's travel), electricity, telecommunications, domestic water, and healthcare to ensure people's lives and activities.

Ensure all students go to school

The Prime Minister requested to focus on mobilizing forces and resources to clean up schools and classrooms, repair damaged educational facilities, and supplement teaching equipment, learning materials, and textbooks. This must be completed by August 2025, ensuring that all students can go to school and that educational facilities are spacious and clean when the new school year begins.

Immediately provide temporary accommodation for households whose houses are completely damaged and must be urgently relocated; arrange land and rebuild houses for households that have lost their houses or are forced to urgently relocate (to be completed no later than September 2025). The reconstruction must ensure safety and be in accordance with the customs and practices of the people. Mobilize military, police, youth, etc. to support people in repairing damaged houses and cleaning the environment.

Military forces support people in Group 4, Song Ma Commune, Son La, to collect mud, tree branches, and trash that was swept away during the recent flood. (Photo: Quang Quyet/VNA)

Continue to review residential areas to promptly evacuate people from weak and unsafe houses and areas at risk of landslides, flash floods, and flash floods.

Urgently repair damaged dams and irrigation works to ensure proactive response to upcoming natural disasters, and restore agricultural production after floods to stabilize people's lives and incomes.

Review and synthesize fully and accurately the damage caused by natural disasters; proactively use local budget reserves and mobilize other legal resources to immediately implement support policies for households affected by natural disasters according to regulations. In cases exceeding the local capacity, calculate specific support needs from the central budget and send them to the Ministry of Finance to preside over, coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and relevant agencies to synthesize and report to competent authorities according to regulations. Complete before August 10, 2025.

Immediately start rebuilding completely damaged houses.

The Ministers of the Ministries of National Defense and Public Security continue to direct the military and public security forces to support people in overcoming the consequences of floods and storms as requested by localities; the Ministry of National Defense shall preside over the immediate reconstruction of completely damaged houses and those that must be urgently relocated from funds mobilized and supported by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front. To be completed in September 2025.

The Minister of Agriculture and Environment directs specialized units to support and guide localities in overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, repairing irrigation works, and restoring agricultural production after floods; promptly supporting localities with agricultural materials, plant and animal varieties, chemicals for disinfecting domestic water, treating the environment, and preventing epidemics to restore agricultural production. To be completed in August 2025.

Traffic police collect mud, tree branches, and trash that was swept away during the recent flood in Song Ma commune, Son La. (Photo: Quang Quyet/VNA)

The Minister of Education and Training directs and guides localities and functional units to grasp the situation of facilities, teaching equipment, textbooks and learning materials, especially at educational institutions in localities affected by recent natural disasters, flash floods, landslides; proactively handle support proposals from localities according to their authority, synthesize reports to the Prime Minister for direction on handling issues beyond their authority. To be completed in August 2025 to ensure that students return to normal schooling as soon as the new school year begins.

The Minister of Construction urgently directed, guided, and supported localities to overcome landslides and traffic disruptions, ensuring smooth traffic, especially on key traffic routes and inter-commune roads.

Do not let disease outbreaks occur after floods

The Minister of Health directs competent authorities and provides guidance and support to localities with necessary chemicals, medicines, equipment and medical instruments to ensure medical examination and treatment, and prevent disease outbreaks after floods. To be completed before August 10, 2025.

The Minister of Finance directs specialized agencies to preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to urgently synthesize support proposals from localities severely damaged by natural disasters, propose and report to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision on support so that localities have resources to immediately handle urgent tasks and overcome the consequences of natural disasters. To be completed before August 15, 2025.

The Minister of Home Affairs and Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities shall coordinate with relevant agencies to promptly synthesize and propose commendation and reward for good examples, collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements in the work of preventing, combating and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters; review and criticize collectives and individuals who are negligent and irresponsible according to regulations.

The General Directors of the Corporations: Vietnam Electricity, Military Telecommunications, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications urgently guide and support localities to immediately overcome power outages and telecommunications signal failures, ensuring continuous and timely power supply and communication to communes and villages. To be completed before August 10, 2025.

The Prime Minister requested the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to balance resources to support the provinces of Dien Bien, Son La, Nghe An and other localities severely damaged by natural disasters with funds to rebuild completely damaged houses and urgently relocated houses (approximately 100 million VND/house for new construction and about 30 million VND/house to repair severely damaged houses).

The Prime Minister requested that organizations, businesses, individuals, officials and people nationwide continue to promote the tradition of solidarity, mutual love, "national love, compatriotism" to join hands to support people affected by natural disasters, flash floods, landslides, in the spirit of "whoever has something to contribute, those who have merit contribute, those who have property contribute, those who have little contribute little, those who have much contribute much," "the whole leaves cover the torn leaves, the little torn leaves cover the more torn leaves."

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam Television, and Voice of Vietnam shall strengthen direction and timely reporting so that organizations, businesses, individuals, officials and people nationwide can fully grasp information and join hands to support and share difficulties with people affected by natural disasters; at the same time, continue to do a good job of communication and instruct people on skills to prevent, respond to, and minimize damage caused by natural disasters.

Regarding some tasks and long-term solutions:

The Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, relevant ministries, branches and localities need to summarize and evaluate the work of preventing, responding to and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, especially after each heavy rain, flood, flash flood, landslide to draw lessons and have effective solutions to reduce damage caused by natural disasters.

Local Party committees and authorities lead and direct functional agencies to review, plan, and rearrange residential areas, proactively relocate people from areas at high risk of natural disasters, flash floods, and landslides to ensure people's safety, and prioritize the relocation of people to concentrated residential areas to facilitate disaster risk prevention and investment in social infrastructure to serve the people.

Soldiers from My Ly Border Guard Station help local people overcome the consequences of floods. (Photo: VNA)

Inspect and evaluate essential infrastructure works of transportation, irrigation, healthcare, and education to have plans for construction, repair, and upgrading to ensure long-term safety and stability; propose competent authorities to consider and allocate funds in the 2026-2030 medium-term public investment plan for implementation.

Promote restructuring of the agricultural sector, change the crop structure, contribute to limiting the impact, effectively responding to natural disasters, creating jobs, and increasing sustainable income for people; pay more attention to planting, restoring and protecting forests to increase forest cover, improve quality and promote the multi-purpose value of forests in terms of economy, protection (water retention capacity, soil protection, landslide prevention, flash floods, etc.) and environmental protection.

The Government Office monitors and urges ministries, branches and localities to implement the Prime Minister's direction in this document according to their assigned functions and tasks; promptly reports to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in charge on urgent and arising issues./.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/thu-tuong-khac-phuc-hau-qua-thien-tai-dam-bao-dieu-kien-hoc-tap-cho-hoc-sinh-5055302.html