VIENTIANE, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Over 70,000 people were affected by natural disasters, mostly floods, in Laos in 2021, in which 17 people were injured and 19 were killed.
Issues on extreme weather were the theme of the Disaster Management Committee Meeting for 2021 and a report on the Disaster Preparedness Plan for 2022, which took place online recently, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.
The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Chansamone Chanyalath.
Floods, drought, storms, landslides and crop pest invasions were recorded 65 times, affecting a total of 70,200 people in 15 provinces, 94 districts and 786 villages.
Chansamone stressed the need for central and local disaster management committees to jointly work on the systematic implementation of emergency responses as well as incident reporting and damage assessment, he said.
However, he praised overall disaster management over the past year, saying several successes had been achieved.
In terms of cooperation with ASEAN and internationally, a Memorandum of Understanding between China and Laos was signed on cooperation in disaster management.
Laos is also participating in the ASEAN Disaster Management Committee and has shared in regional and international remedial meetings, as well as getting advice from international organizations on disaster prevention, control and mitigation.
Meeting participants were invited to share ideas and discuss solutions to outstanding issues and challenges in this line of work, in the hope that a more concerted response to natural disasters would be rolled out in 2022, according to the report. ■