Delta farmers prepared for forest fires

Vo Van Lan, who owns 30ha of cajeput forest in Thanh Hoa District’s Thuan Binh Commune in Long An province, says that forest owners are living in tents in the forest in case fire breaks out.

Authorities say all of Long An’s 30,000 ha of cajeput forests are under the fifth alert level, the highest.

The Thuan Binh administration has raised public awareness of forest-fire prevention and control as drought is expected to be severe this year.

The commune is currently facing water shortages for its 3,000 ha of cajeput forests.

The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has instructed forest-protection forces to cooperate with local authorities and the public to prevent forest fires.

In Kien Giang Province, nearly 3,000 ha of protected forests in An Bien District and 1,500 ha of protected forests in the U Minh Thuong National Park are now at the third alert level, according to the province’s Forest Protection Sub-department.

In An Giang province, more than 12,400 ha of forests in Chau Doc Town, Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts have had no water for many days.

Prolonged heat has dried up tree leaves. Cigarette or incense ash could easily cause fires and destroy thousands of hectares of forest in these localities.

As March and April are the highest-risk months of the year for fires, the sub-department has provided more firefighting equipment to localities, including installing more than 700 water tanks at mountain slopes.

In Ca Mau Province, the area of forest without water has increased from 24,000ha early this month to more than 33,000 ha. Of the figure, 17,000 ha are at the fourth and fifth alert levels of forest-fires.

If prolonged heat continues, all 41,000ha of cajeput forests in the province could be without water by the end of the month.

Ca Mau authorities have also asked households that live near forests to not to harvest beehives or catch fish.