The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has approved a project funded by the World Bank-funded project on managing natural disasters at a total cost of almost 180 million USD.

Of the total capital, the World Bank provides 150 million USD and the remainder comes from the Vietnamese side.

The project, which is expected to be fully completed by 2017, will support the government’s strategy of averting and mitigating the impacts of natural disasters until 2020.

It will focus on several central coastal provinces and help them to introduce adequate protective measures and damage limitation procedures so they have the capacity to deal with the effects of natural disasters. The targeted localities include Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Ninh Thuan provinces, and Da Nang city.

The project will also improve weather forecasts and disaster warning systems in the National H ydro - meteorology Centre’s regional branches; disseminate accurate information promptly to the public to give people more time to react and prepare for natural disasters.

The project will run a pilot model of a new way of collecting and analysing meteorological data, supply equipment and upgrade the network’s capacity.

In its first phase, the project will be carried out in the five provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Nam and Binh Dinh.-VNA