Post typhoon storm brews over communications system

While responsibility for the loss remains unclear, disputes are growing over a proposal to build a modern maritime system that Ministry of Fisheries (MoFI) said would be able to locate ships and warn them about possible storms. The MoFI said it had sent the proposal to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) a few years ago for official development assistance funds allocation but has yet to receive approval.
Chu Tien Vinh, head of MoFI’s Fisheries Resource Conservation Department, told reporters that the system would cost $63 million and would provide communications equipment for 7,000 ships. Vinh said that, had the system been in place already, losses form Chanchu would have been lessened.
But MPI has not responded to the proposal over the past five years, he said.
However, MPI deputy minister Cao Viet Sinh said MoFI had not fine-tuned the project, and to date, it has not submitted a feasibility study to the Prime Minister for approval. He also said MPI spoke with Japanese partners about the project during a meeting last year but that the Japanese side had not agreed to finance the system.
Hoang Tat Thang, director of the Ministry of Transport’s (MoT) Maritime Department, said there was no need to build such a system, as a similar system had already been deployed. Thang said the department had put into operation a maritime communications system last year with 29 stations from Quang Ninh, in the North, to Kien Giang Province in the south. In addition, there are maritime information processing, emergency call and earth satellite stations in Hanoi and Haiphong.
“The maritime communication system operates 24 hours a day and covers all the country’s mainland and sea areas,” said Thang.

He went on that the system could receive emergency calls from ships and boats and send them to other concerned agencies. It would also provide maritime transport safety information, including weather forecasts.

Thang said the system had sent warning messages to ships and boats after it received word of Chanchu, and that it sent rescue calls to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“The system operated effectively during the typhoon,” said Thang.

However, he pointed out that ships might not receive warning messages from the system, as fishermen often used their own frequencies. Provincial fisheries departments, he said, did not know where ships were fishing and therefore they did not take the initiative in informing stations to broadcast warnings to fishermen.

He added, however, that the system was not built for weather forecasts. “Weather forecast is the responsibility of the Central Meteorology Centre and maritime communication stations and can only broadcast the forecast to ships at sea,” he said.

The public have raised doubts over the meteorology centre’s performance during Chanchu and many fishermen claimed that by the time they received the warning that the storm had turned towards them, it was too late.

Under public pressure, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) last week sacked Le Cong Thanh, head of the Central Meteorology Centre. But who bore responsibility has not been determined.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has asked MoNRE to work out who was responsible and to improve the early warning system.

Other officials have called for an investigation into the forecast before the storm and into ship management and rescue services.





No. 764/June 5-11, 2006