A warning board about forest protection is installed in Lung Ngọc Hoàng Nature Reserve in Hậu Giang Province’ Phụng Hiệp District. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Thái

HCM CITY — Authorities and forest owners in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta have stepped up measures to prevent forest fires as the region is in its peak dry season.

The delta’s 12 provinces and Cần Thơ have tightened the monitoring of forests and implemented advocacy activities to enhance the public’s awareness of the risk of forest fires and mobilised people to protect forests.

Lê Hữu Toàn, director of the Kiên Giang Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said it is the peak dry season and the department, in cooperation with relevant agencies and localities, regularly informs about the risk of forest fires to households living near forests.

Forest owners have increased monitoring efforts and worked at inspection stations around the clock, he said.

Kiên Giang has mobilised various forces such as the police, army and local people, to participate in preventing and fighting forest fires.

It has instructed 931 households living near forests to sign commitments to prevent and fight forest fires during this dry season and has set up 205 groups with more than 1,868 people to protect and fight forest fires.

Kiên Giang, which has one of largest forest areas in the delta, has more than 41,000ha of forest facing the threat of fire, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of its total forest areas, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The department, relevant agencies and forests owners have made fire breaks in forests, upgraded 48 dams and six sluices to store more water, arranged water containers with a holding capacity of 2-12 cubic metre each and set up pumping stations in fire-prone forests.

Kiên Giang has had seven forest fires in the Phú Quốc National Park so far this year, damaging 14ha of brush and cajuput trees.

The delta’s provinces have pumped more water into forests, prepared fire fighting tools and vehicles, built dams and fire watching towers, and installed boards warning people against lighting fires in forests.

A large area of forests in the delta are mangrove forests.

In Hậu Giang Province, hot weather and drought is common and daytime temperatures range between 34-36 degree Celsius, according to the province’s Steering Committee for Forest Protection and Development Plan.

The water levels in mangrove forests have declined rapidly and are drying up, and vegetation and growth in some forests have died because of water shortage, it said.

The steering committee has decided to increase the forest fire warning from level 1 to level 3 (high level) since March 15.

Hậu Giang has more than 1,656ha of its 3,770ha of forests facing the threat of fire.

Sóc Trăng Province has 10,130ha of forests and some are facing the fifth fire risk level, the highest warning, according to its Sub-Department of Forest Protection.

Phan Thị Trúc Giang, head of the sub-department, said with current hot weather, the risk of forest fires is very high and reaches the fifth level.

To prevent forest fires, the sub-department implemented fire prevention plans for forest owners at the beginning of the dry season, she said.

It has taken urgent measures to prevent forest fires at the highest level, she said. — VNS