Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urges efforts to mitigate damage from landslides, flash floods: Mu Cang Chai district following a flash flood (Photo: VNA)

In the dispatch, the Prime Minister asked ministers, chairpersons of People’s Committees of centrally-run cities and provinces and heads of relevant agencies to fully grasp the situation and proactively take necessary measures within their authority.

In the immediate future, they must take several urgent measures to ensure the safety of residents in areas highly prone to landslides and flash floods, including evacuating them and their assets to safe areas, providing them with food and necessities, and raising public awareness of the effort, especially in remote, mountainous, border, island and ethnic minority areas.

In the long term, localities need to closely control urban planning and construction activities, especially houses and structures in areas with sloping terrain, along rivers, streams, canals, coastal zones, and regions at risk of geological hazards. They were urged to prohibit and strictly deal with violations related to the land use and management, forest protection and construction in protected and special-use forests, and illegal mineral extraction.

The Prime Minister ordered building projects and allocating resources for sustainable projects aimed at preventing and mitigating landslides.

The chairpersons of the provincial People's Committees must be held accountable to the PM and the law for any lack of responsibility for leadership and direction that leads to severe loss of lives and property of the people.

Specific tasks were also assigned to ministries, agencies concerned and the press.

Since early July, landslides, flash floods, riverbank and coastal erosion have caused severe damage to human lives, assets and properties, roads and infrastructure facilities, particularly in the Central Highlands, northern mountainous and Mekong Delta localities.