Da Nang People's Committee Chairman Le Trung Chinh has just signed and promulgated a directive on natural disaster adaptation and search and rescue in 2022 in order to proactively prevent, combat and effectively respond to natural disasters and related accident situations. As a standing force tasked with flood and storm mitigation, search and rescue at sea, the Da Nang Border Guard Command has actively developed plans to implement natural disaster preventive measures to minimise damage to fishermen operating at sea.

Border Guard Squadron No. 2 is ready in terms of forces and means to promptly respond to natural disasters occurring at sea. Photo: BA VINH

According to Colonel Ton Quoc Khanh, Commander of the Da Nang Border Guard, in addition to carrying out the task of disease prevention and control, this unit has actively implement flood and storm mitigation, search and rescue missions at sea in close proximity to reality.

Da Nang is a city located in the central coast region, heavily influenced by storms that form in the East Sea. In addition, the waters off Da Nang are located on national and international maritime routes, often witnessing a large number of boats and fishing vessels engaged in fishing activities. Therefore, there are often incidents at sea, so support and help from the local fire fighting and rescue forces is also in desperate need.

In addition to objective causes due to abnormal changes in weather, there are also subjective factors leading to risks of accidents for fishermen. In fact, some boats are  small and old, lack of technical and marine equipment, and their owners are not well aware of the safety of waterway traffic and necessary skills to promptly prevent storms and cyclones possible at sea.

Da Nang now houses 1,230 fishing boats with a total capacity of 401,781CV, average capacity of 326.65CV/vessel, and they often operate on fishing grounds mainly in the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos and Gulf of Tonkin.

Moreover, every day, there are hundreds of boats of fishermen from cities and provinces arrive in the Tho Quang fishing port for seafood consumption or shelters from storms. Meanwhile, this venue is not yet qualified for a large number of boats to anchor.

Many vessels entering and sheltering from storms have to berthed bumper-to-bumper together along the lower bank of the Han River, so when flash flood happen quickly, an accident may be inevitable.

On the other hand, the number of ships entering Da Nang Bay is increasing, requiring a reasonable plan when there is a direct impact of the storm.

In 2021, officers and men from the Da Nang Border Guard were actively engaged in helping people building roads, reinforcing their houses, and bring hundreds of boats ashore to avoid storms.

For tourist boats operating on the Han River, the border guards instructed their captains to maneuver towards the upstream of the Cam Le river to avoid damage in case of storms.

According to Colonel Ton Quoc Khanh, the Da Nang Border Guard regularly communicates with the Da Nang Coastal Information Station to promptly inform fishermen operating at sea of the predicted developments and tracks of storms, tropical depressions and other natural disasters so that they can take shelters.

This unit also directs border guard posts and stations to strictly prohibit ships from going out to sea, calling for them to return ashore, and instructing them to find safe shelters in the face of natural disasters.

Reporting by BA VINH – Translating by A.THU