Learning how to mitigate natural disasters

Update: 11/05/2009
The Challenge to Change (CtC) organisation will make surveys and instruct people in some coastal cities in Vietnam to combat natural calamities caused by climate change. The central city of Da Nang is the second coastal city in which CtC has conducted surveys and training activities, beginning on May 6, after Quy Nhon city in Binh Dinh province. The next city will be Vung Tau in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

CtC’s representative in Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Phuc Hoa, said that CtC will assess the threats of climate changes in these cities. Based on the survey, CtC will help the local authorities to have an objective view on their ability to cope with natural disasters.

The chief advisor of CtC group in Da Nang, Luong Quang Doc, said that from May 6-23, CtC will make a survey of damage caused by natural disasters in recent years and take a field trip to Tho Quang ward in Son Tra district and Hoa Hiep Bac ward in Lien Chieu district. The two wards are considered the areas most vulnerable to natural disasters in Da Nang.

CtC’s research in Vietnam and other Asian countries will be reported to an international conference on natural disaster prevention and fighting and the impacts of climate changes in Copenhagen, Denmark this December.

In the last ten years, Da Nang suffered the highest number of storms in the central region, 34 storms, followed by Thua Thien-Hue province, 32, Quang Tri province, 30, Quang Ngai 19, and Binh Dinh 14, said the Deputy Director of the Da Nang city Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, vice head of the Da Nang Steering Board for Flood and Storm Control. 

Source: VietNamNet/TP