On the afternoon of December 6, at a regular Government press conference, Mr. Nguyen Tri Duc - Chief of Office, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Construction - answered questions related to rebuilding collapsed and completely drifting houses for people in storm and flood areas.
According to Mr. Nguyen Tri Duc, in 2014, the Prime Minister issued a Decision on policies to support poor households in building houses to prevent storms and floods in the Central region, with scope of application in 13 provinces and cities in the North Central region and the Central Coast (before the merger).
After that, the Ministry also issued Circular 16 guiding the implementation of the Prime Minister's decision.
The Ministry of Construction has requested localities to study and design at least 3 typical storm and flood prevention and control houses, ensuring the minimum criteria for prescribed area and quality, ensuring storm and flood prevention and control, and organize the introduction of design models for people to refer to and select (households are not required to build according to model designs).
In addition to the model design, localities have specific instructions for the case of renovating and raising floors to make floors to prevent storms and floods. Implementing the above regulations, localities must design and publish at least 3 models, some localities have up to 6 - 8 models (Hue, Thanh Hoa); these housing models are all posted on the Information Portal of the local Department of Construction.
The Ministry of Construction also assigned the National Institute of Architecture to study and deploy a system of models for design of safe houses for natural disaster prevention and control in the period of 2007-2023, including 176 models that can be used immediately by localities.
According to the representative of the Ministry of Construction, the above models are built on the basis of research on natural conditions, cultural practices, and natural disaster characteristics in areas affected by natural disasters; ensuring compliance with current technical standards and regulations that are eligible for application.
Many localities have put these designs into use as main reference documents, serving as instructions on design, renovation of houses and building housing support programs to prevent storms and floods... Through practical implementation, houses according to the above designs are safe and can withstand floods.
However, in recent years, storms and floods have occurred in most areas across the country with much more complexity and danger, so it is necessary to have new models of flood-proof houses to suit the actual situation.
Therefore, the Ministry of Construction requests the People's Committees of the provinces to direct the Department of Construction and relevant agencies to coordinate with the National Architectural Institute (Ministry of Construction) to review the terrain characteristics of each region for application and to select the application of design models according to the instructions of the Prime Minister.
The implementation needs to be closely linked to construction planning, rural planning, and regional planning, ensuring long-term safety, not just immediate handling, said a representative of the Ministry of Construction.
Looking back from the beginning of 2025 to now, Vietnam has experienced particularly serious natural disasters; especially in the Central region, which has continuously suffered from high-level storms, heavy rain, and floods that have repeatedly broken historical records, causing heavy damage to people.
When unusual natural disasters violate the law, it is necessary to switch to impact-based weather forecasting. Therefore, in the work of collecting data, evaluating, calculating and forecasting hydrological and climatic data, etc., in the work of planning, establishing and approving investment projects, there is also a need to change the approach, model and calculation method.
