Expanding media’s role in reducing disaster risk
(VOV) -Participants at a regional media seminar held in Hanoi over July 25–26 have heard media agencies play a key role in reducing the risks of disasters, especially via the accurate and timely provision of early warnings.
Seminar delegates, representing international organisations, media agencies and the national hydro-meteorological centre, focused discussions on how to maximise the accuracy and usefulness of natural disaster information available to the public. They also considered effective measures for tightening cooperation between media workers and weather forecasters in times of urgency.
Reinforcing the relationship between disaster risk reduction managers and mass media outlets is essential to improving the quality of weather and hydrologic forecasts and warnings, they said.
They paid particular attention to the special role and vulnerability of women during natural disasters and their aftermath.
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They noted that proper disaster management—the kind capable of protecting socio-economic development and national security and defence—encompasses preparedness and recovery in addition to immediate response.
Government agencies, social and economic organisations, the military, citizens, and all kinds of foreign residents have a duty to contribute to disaster prevention, mitigation, and response, they added.
Vietnam’s natural disaster susceptibility is heightened by its position in a tropical monsoon zone. Flash floods, cyclones, droughts, landslides, forest fires, earthquakes, and salt water intrusion cost human lives and cause huge losses of property every year.