Vietnam faces increasing flash floods and landslides

Highway 32 through Mu Cang Chai District (Yen Bai Province) is ruined due to rain and flood (Photo: SGGP)

Concerns looming all over the country

A flash flood struck the area near Ban Tien lake (Minh Phu Commune, Soc Son District, Hanoi) and buried many cars with mud, which was unprecedented in Hanoi. At the scene, 13 cars of tourists were buried in soil and rock. The fast-flowing flood water brought along such an amount of soil and rock that the authorities of Minh Phu Commune had to mobilize three excavators to rescue the vehicles for many hours.

In fact, this flash flood was forewarned many years ago, given the growing tendency of city escape, which prompted the race to build homestays and resorts in the area. 20 years ago, many communes in Soc Son District were still surrounded with pine and acacia forests, but now the area has been invaded by many tourist resorts. Around the area of ​​Ban Tien lake (Minh Phu Commune) and Dong Do lake (Minh Tri Commune), many resorts were illegally built in the place of hills and mountains.

Mr. Pham Quang Ngoc, Vice Chairman of Soc Son District People's Committee, affirmed that there were some illegal constructions and homestays in Ban Tien hamlet. The road was covered with soil and rock given the reckless construction, which was neither planned nor licensed by the competent authority.

​​According to Mr. Nguyen Van Tien, Deputy Director of the Department of Dike Management and Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (MARD), Deputy Chief of the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, from the beginning of 2023 to July 21, there were 37 heavy rains, flooding, flash floods, landslides.

From the end of July, floods and landslides continued to occur in many localities, especially in the Central Highlands and the North. Only in the first week of August, there were 167 landslide locations in the North, mainly in the Northwest region. The rains have caused heavy damage in the provinces of Yen Bai, Son La, Lai Chau, Dien Bien.

Floods in Mu Cang Chai District (Yen Bai Province) caused landslides and damage to nearly 100 locations along Highway 32 as well as roads connecting Mu Cang Chai to communes, which consequently isolated Ho Bon and Khao Mang communes. Of the nearly 100 landslide sites in Mu Cang Chai, three locations witnessed serious collapse, with each section about 100m long, disrupting the road network.

Excessive exploitation - leading cause of erosion

Since the beginning of 2023, more than 200 landslides have occurred in Ca Mau Province, with a total length of over 4,900 meters, more than half of which occured in rural concrete roads. Most of the landslide locations directly affected and threatened people's lives and properties, disrupting the rural traffic system, and causing property damage of more than US$587 thousand (VND14 billion).

According to Mr. Huynh Quoc Viet, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ca Mau Province, the locality has been focusing on many solutions to address and overcome the above situation. In particular, raising public awareness of people in landslide areas is considered as one of the key tasks.

An Giang and Dong Thap provinces are the two watersheds of the Tien and Hau rivers with the highest total number of landslides in the Mekong Delta. Sand mining, in particular, is considered one of the six main causes of the worsening landslides in the Mekong Delta. Sand mining on the Mekong River is taking place strongly in all countries, especially those located downstream.

In addition, the excessive exploitation of groundwater also contributes to riverbank and coastal erosion. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Mekong Delta is currently home to 7,733 wells, with a capacity of about 10 cubic meters per day each, which has caused many consequences.

According to Mr. Tran Anh Thu, Vice Chairman of An Giang Provincial People's Committee, the province has successfully handled 22 riverbank landslides since 2020, relocating dozens of households and individual businesses to safe places. The current project of building embankments along the river in An Giang Province is almost ineffective, as landslides occurred mainly due to sand mining activities.

To cope with landslides, from now to 2025, Kien Giang Province shall need a total of 200 coastal erosion prevention constructions, with a total cost of more than $713 million (VND17 trillion). Afforestation and riverbank reinforcement are also prioritized in the provinces of Tien Giang, An Giang, Dong Thap, Long An, and Can Tho City to limit landslides.

Places that are still protected by forest belts shall be reinforced and planted with more trees, while others shall be resorted to reinforcing the three sides of the embankment to prevent landslides. The dike body shall also be adjusted from 1.6 meters to about 2.2 meters high in the case of rising sea level.

According to Mr. Pham Van Trong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Giang Province, the province has just proposed the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control consider seeking the Prime Minister's approval for economic support. This includes the expenses for the implementation of urgent projects in the locality, such as the irrigation system to protect the orchards, a system of dikes and sluices to prevent saline intrusion in the islets of the western districts, and 11 projects for emergency treatment of landslides.

By Duy Cuong, Phu Van, Quoc Binh, Tan Thai - Translated by Yen Ngan(SGGP)