Communist Review - Over the years, as a core force in natural hazard and disaster prevention, response and search, rescue for victims, entities in the whole army have always upheld the spirit of responsibility and solidarity to overcome all challenges, fulfill all assigned tasks, and thus embellish the glorious tradition of the Vietnam People's Army “For the people to serve”, “For the people to sacrifice themselves”.

Natural disasters and impacts caused by climate change constitute one of the biggest challenges facing countries in the 21st century. In Vietnam, climate change has made natural disasters, especially storms, tropical depressions, floods, storm surges, sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, and saltwater intrusion, cyclones, forest fires, flash floods, landslides and so forth more complex, extreme and unpredictable, both in terms of type, level, affected areas and occurrence cycle, causing huge loss of life and property.

In the face of unusual weather phenomena, over the years, the Party and State of Vietnam have issued multiple documents on disaster prevention, combat, response and search and rescue operations. As the core force, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense have concretized the guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State, issued several directives, resolutions on this issue in the entire Army. Under the direction of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense, with a proactive and active spirit, all military entities have focused on well performing the task of preventing and responding to disasters and saving lives. They have achieved outstanding results as follows.

The General Staff Department has actively cooperated with the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense to direct Party committees and commanders at all levels to implement drastically guidelines and policies of the Government and the National Committee for disaster response and search and rescue activities. Party committees and commanders have well accomplished the ideological and political propaganda, raising awareness of officers and soldiers on this issue. They consider it the Army's combat mission in peacetime. This has strengthened political will for the contingent of cadres and soldiers, thus enabling good personal and material preparedness according to the motto “4  on –site” (command;  human resources; materials and means; logistics)  so as to activate immediately emergency response procedures. Party committees and  commanders have closely coordinated with localities to promptly review, adjust and supplement plans to prevent and respond to various types of disasters and carry out search and rescue operations. Furthermore, they have strictly maintained the round-the-clock response at all levels, firmly grasped the situation, mobilized forces and means for disaster relief and rescue. The Ministry of National Defense has directed all military entities to build and complete plans to respond to earthquakes, tsunamis and dykes, dams and reservoirs bursts. Party committees and commanders have regularly conducted propaganda on the occasion of the Traditional Day of Natural Disaster Prevention and Response (May 22) and the National Week of Natural Disaster Prevention and Response (from May 15 to May 22 annually).

Vietnamese military forces have developed plans for disaster relief and rescue, consolidated command boards at all levels, and established a close-knit relationship with local authorities and forces, reviewed and adjusted plans to best suit situations, prepared adequate logistics to promptly respond to emergency situations. According to Decision No. 5570/QD-BQP dated December 27, 2014 of the Ministry of National Defense on “Approval of the Project on the establishment of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief Teams of the Ministry of National Defense”, 5 Teams under the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) including the Collapse Rescue Team under the Engineer Command, the Team responsible for handling environmental consequences under the Chemistry Command, the Disaster Relief Medical Assistance Team under the Army Medical Department, the Search and Rescue Dogs Team under the Border Guard Command and the Maritime Search and Rescue Team under the Navy Command are being trained to be ready to participate in regional and international disaster relief operations. Training and drills are carried out according to the motto “Basic, practical, solid” and are adapted to each area and region, thus improving management and handling capacity in extreme conditions.

Military agencies and entities have strictly maintained the 24/24 hour support at all levels, actively monitored and grasped the situation, promptly and effectively responded to accidents that may occur, thus minimizing the damage of life and property. They have mobilized forces and vehicles to quickly and successfully take place maritime disaster relief and rescue activities. Take examples of success in the oil spill in Quarter 5, Quang Hung ward, Thanh Hoa city, Thanh Hoa province or Singapore - flagged containership APL Vancouver vessel fire as well as an serious accident of the fishing vessel NA 95899 TS rammed and sunk by the vessel Pacific 01 (9 fishermen missing), the ship BV 98459 TS carrying about 50,000 liters of diesel oil sank in the island of Phu Quy, Binh Thuan province or the cargo vessel Vietship 01 (10 crew members) at the Cua Viet Port, Quang Tri province, etc. Besides, international cooperation in disaster relief and rescue has been reinforced in accordance with the foreign policy of the Ministry of National Defense and the State of Vietnam. Close coordination with relevant ministries and branches has been carried out to strengthen bilateral cooperation with the US, Japan, Cambodia and Russia; Multilateral cooperation with ASEAN members is also given due consideration in order to enlist the support of other countries in sharing information, building forecasting and warning systems, assessing impacts of various types of disasters, exchanging experiences, implementing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief activities, training management and response skills.

In 2020, there were a total of 2,060 natural disasters events in Vietnam, causing 636 deaths, 185 missing people, and 869 injuries, causing significant damage of 488 vehicles, burning 758 factories and 1,597 ha of forest, damaging 281,364 houses, 268,798 ha of rice and crops, killed 936,435 cattle and poultry, spilling 70m3 of oil. The Vietnam People's Army, as the core force in disaster relief and rescue, has mobilized 364,262 people (132,849 soldiers arrivals, 231,413 militiamen arrivals) and 12,945 vehicles to effectively participate in the rescue of 1,411 accidents, saved 1,770 people and 55 vehicles, informed 3,110,095 people/656,709 vehicles about the storm, and relocated 201,236 households to a safe place, transported 178.5 tons of necessities, 13,823m3 of clean water to the drought-stricken areas, repaired 60,030 houses, harvested 146ha of rice...

Agencies and entities in the whole army, with feelings of solidarity, mutual love, responsibility for sharing the damage and loss of people in areas affected by natural disasters, have mobilized thousands of working days to help them handle consequences of natural disasters, clean up environment and prevent epidemic. They have also donated hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong and medicines, food, essential goods,... to support local people, especially families who lost their relatives and assist local authorities restore infrastructure, stabilize people's lives and production.

Reality proves that, whenever a disaster occurs, officers and soldiers do not mind hardships, provide immediate assistance in the most difficult and complicated areas, work hands by hands with local authorities and people to respond to disaster. The Vietnam armed forces always demonstrate their will of “For the people to serve”, “For the people to sacrifice themselves”. They play a pivotal role in responding to and mitigating disasters and saving victims, making a considerable contribution to minimizing the loss of life and property, and their contributions are appreciated by the Party, State and local Party committees, authorities and people. From the process of disaster relief and rescue over the past time, some fundamental lessons can be drawn as follows:

Regularly grasping the guidelines of the Party, the policies and laws of the State and the guiding documents of the Government, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of National Defense on natural disaster events response and rescue in order to promptly formulate action plans at all levels; closely coordinating with local authorities at all levels.

2- Proactively updating weather forecasts and climatological information; coordinating with localities to firmly grasp multi aspect information, especially in terms of topography and geology in areas prone to natural disasters so that they can adjust disaster relief, search and rescue plans suitable to the characteristics of each entity.

3- Promoting leadership of the Party committees and local authorities, the advisory and direct management role of command boards in implementing the motto “4 on site”; Enhancing the role of local forces in which the army and local armed forces play a pivotal role.

4- In the process of responding to natural hazards and disasters, search and rescue for victims, it is essential to proactively, immediately and drastically mobilize all resources, combine different measures and prioritize the most appropriate ones in each specific situation, take place search and rescue operations as soon as possible, ensure safety and efficiency. Rescue teams must carefully prepare tools and equipment suitable for the terrain and weather condition, ensure smooth communication line and security in all aspects.

5- Developing plans to respond to natural disaster events in specific situations. On that basis, leaders need to organize training and drills so as to improve their management and response skills; raising the sense of responsibility for officials and managers at all levels and increasing people's awareness; well preparing human resources and means to be ready to perform tasks when a disaster event occurs.

It is forecasted that in 2021 and the coming years, due to the impact of climate change, hydro-meteorological events and natural disasters will continue to become complicated, extreme and unpredictable, causing significant negative impacts on the environment, production and business activities, infrastructure, people's lives and properties, adversely affecting defense-military activities. Besides, socio-economic growth, development of urban areas, underground construction, high-rise buildings, industrial parks, chemical plants, lakes, irrigation dams, hydropower, exploitation of minerals, fishing and trade through sea and air transportation, exploitation and transportation of oil and gas also pose potential risks to disasters that may lead to serious consequences.

In order to enhance their central role in disaster relief and search and rescue operation, military entities should give top priority to the following solutions:

First and foremost, Party committees and commanders at all levels need to thoroughly grasp the directives and resolutions of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense on disaster relief and search and rescue operation, particularly Resolution No. 689-NQ/QUTW dated October 10, 2014 of the Central Military Commission on “Strategy for natural disasters prevention and mitigation and rescue to 2020 and subsequent years”, Directive No. 77/CT-BQP dated March 11, 2016 of the Ministry of National Defense on “strengthening the work of natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue in the 2016-2020 period”. A due consideration should be given to propaganda and education affairs so that cadres and soldiers understand clearly the roles, functions and tasks of armed forces in this issue and determine that this is an important political task - the task of fighting in peacetime and overcome difficulties to successfully complete the assigned tasks.

Secondly, proactively updating weather forecasts and climatological information to be ready for natural disaster prevention and control and develop plans to respond to strong storms, super typhoons, building collapse accidents, fires and explosions, forest fires, etc. Regularly reviewing and adjusting plans and measures to best suit the situation of each locality, area, type of natural hazard or disaster such as tornado, hail, storm surge, rising sea levels causing floods and so forth.

Thirdly, preparing personnel and means to respond to unusual situations; In areas prone to forest fires, lake and dam burst, it is required to ensure the security for officers and soldiers. Improving the quality of training for disaster relief and search and rescue teams. Giving core focus on training mobility skills and practicing search and rescue activities. Closely combining training with simulation exercises to boost leadership capacity, coordination and response skills as well as search and rescue skills in extreme conditions.

Fourthly, proactively advice local Party committees and authorities on policies and solutions in mobilizing human resources and means in natural hazard and disaster relief, search and rescue so as to choose appropriate methods for each specific situation. Strengthening coordination between Party committees, local authorities and military entities in dangerous situations.

Fifthly, preparing well the conditions for effective implementation of the motto “4 on site”, bringing into play all resources of all branches in disaster prevention and response, search and rescue.  Proactively advice Party committees and local authorities in mobilizing personnel, means and equipment from businesses and nonmilitary organizations to promptly respond to emergency situations.

Sixthly, improving the material and spiritual life of officers and soldiers participating in the prevention and response to natural hazards and disasters, search and rescue; fully and quickly implementing incentive programs and policies. Strengthening inspection, supervision, preliminary and final review to draw on the experience; timely motivating and rewarding teams and individuals that have made outstanding achievements in disaster relief and search and rescue operation.

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 966 (May 2021)