Local government response capacity to natural disasters in the Central Highlands Provinces, Vietnam

Natural disasters in the Central Highlands of Vietnam are increasing and therefore becoming a concern for the provincial governments. The local authorities’ recent ability to respond to natural disasters in the region is considered ineffective, as evidenced by the increasing number of deaths and economic losses. Here, we focus on presenting and analyzing the current capacity of local authorities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam to respond to natural disasters in a normal state and in transitioning to an emergency state. We also provide evidence of natural disasters that have occurred and the actions undertaken by the Central Highlands provinces over the period 2015–2021. Our analysis shows that the capacity of local authorities to respond to natural disasters in the region is not commensurate with the actual requirements, in the dry season, the drought area increases, in the rainy season floods occur more, and human losses and economic losses have not been controlled. We propose that first of all, the government needs to have a system of timely guidance documents, the coordination between relevant agencies, secondly, that civil servants working in disaster response work must be capable, thirdly, the government must there should be publicity on how to respond, four is to limit the hot growth of projects such as hydroelectric projects, five is that the government must have a long-term master plan and sixth is to pay attention to livelihoods, education level of local ethnic people. These proposals can gradually control and limit the damage caused by increasingly severe natural disasters in the Central Highlands.

Nguyen Van Quang, Nguyen Hai Thanh