1,092 flood-proof houses built under GCF-funded project

Tran Quang Hoai, head of the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the project’s director, said 199,46ha of mangrove forests were planted and restored throughout the year.

The project, the first to be funded by the GCF for the 2017-2021 period, has also included some proposals of livelihood models for residents affected by mangrove forest planting and restoration.

It has also organised 10 training of trainers (TOT) courses at central, regional and provincial levels, as well as 100 training of facilitators (TOF) ones at the communal level, Hoai added.

Caitlin Wiesen, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Acting Resident Representative in Vietnam, said the project is currently underway with funding being used in the most effective way.

According to Vu Thai Truong, the UNDP’s project manager, the project is expected to construct 1,380 flood-proof houses for residents in its five targeted provinces for 2019, and benefit another 4,000 households over the next five years.

Apart from organising communication activities and housing design contests, the project will also set up systems supervising flood-resistant houses and propose new programmes on building flood-proof houses in 28 coastal localities in Vietnam.

It will plant and restore 4,000ha of mangrove forests, continue to build and complete data on coastal forests, and publish mangrove forest data on climaterisk.org.vn.

Vietnam is one of the five countries hardest hit by natural disasters. Over the past two decades, natural disasters left over 400 people dead and missing each year, caused economic losses equal to about 1-1.5 percent of GDP, and affected people’s living environment and conditions, as well as socio-economic activities and the sustainable development of the country.

In 2017, a record number of 16 typhoons and four low pressure systems occurred in the East Sea. They claimed the lives of 386 people throughout the year, damaged more than 600,000 houses, and caused economic losses of about 60 trillion VND (2.64 billion USD), with the worst typhoons being Doksuri and Damrey.