A house designed to resist floods was handed over to a local resident in central Thừa Thiên-Huế Province. Photo courtesy of the UNDP

HÀ NỘI — More than 3,500 houses designed to resist flooding and storms have been built under a project on improving the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities to climate change related impacts in Việt Nam.

The information was released at a conference held on Thursday to review the project results in 2020 and discuss implementation for next year.

The project, funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the UNDP, aims at raising the resilience to consequences of climate change in Việt Nam through building safe homes, increasing the coverage of mangrove forests, and providing trustworthy information about climate risks.

Accordingly, it has also helped to plant and regenerate over 3,300ha of mangrove forests and successfully carry out 24 models to help local poor households increase their income.

More than 39,000 officials and local residents have been trained to make plans and assess climate risks.

The projects targets to build 4,000 houses designed to resist flooding and storms by 2021 and regenerate 4,000ha of mangrove forests and provide information relating to climate change and natural disasters for around 20,000 people.

Project director Trần Quang Hoài, who is also Director of the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, said historic storms hitting the central region over the past few months damaged tens of thousands of houses in coastal provinces but most houses built under the project were still safe.

“This is one of the successes of the project and it is necessary to multiply this model to increase the efficiency of the project,” he said.

Deputy director of the Ministry of Construction’s Department of House and Real estate Market Management Nguyễn Mạnh Khởi said most of the houses built under the project met construction standards and were very strong.

The project is expected to benefit 28 coastal localities, with the focus on northern Nam Định Province, central Quảng Bình, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi provinces, and Cà Mau Province in the south.

International support

Thirty-two international organisations have donated some US$25 million for people affected by natural disasters in Việt Nam’s central region this year, heard a conference held on Wednesday.

At the event, which reviewed international support for Việt Nam’s natural disaster risk mitigation in 2020, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyễn Hoàng Hiệp said the due attention given to Việt Nam reflected the humanitarian value in the work of the international organisations and the effective operation of the Disaster Risk Reduction Partnership (DRRP).

The DRRP was established under the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Decision No 3922/QD-BNN-TCCB, with the participation of 18 international organisations.

At the event, representatives from DRRP members discussed related matters and pledged their continued collaboration with Việt Nam in the future. — VNS