Main streets in downtown Hanoi are flooded after a downpour. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – It is critical to havecommunication protocols that ensures every community member’s access to earlyclimate forecast and warning, said Nguyen Van Tien, Deputy Director of theGeneral Department of the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority (VDMA), onOctober 13.
Since a group of population may have limited access to earlyforecast and early warning reports for many reasons, it is very risky forcivilians whenever a natural disaster occurs, Tien told the National UrbanForum “Building Urban Resilience Through Early Warning and Early Action” inHanoi.
Another important thing is to guarantee the fundingavailability to activate early actions at a short notice, he added.
Given that Vietnam is among the five countries most vulnerable tonatural disasters and climate change, he continued, the Vietnamese Governmentlast year adopted a national strategy for natural disaster prevention andcontrol to 2030, with a vision towards 2050, which includes contents related to urban resilience against natural disasters, such as planning and construction control to minimise impacts of natural disasters, particularly flooding.
Nguyen Huynh Quang, from the VDMA, said disaster riskinformation is of significance to authorities and people as it enables proactive responseto natural disasters, a better understanding of related risks and a moreresponsible approach in issuing disaster policies.
The forum was hosted by VDMA in collaboration with the AsianDisaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) and the Norwegian Agency for DevelopmentCooperation (NORAD) in response to the International Day for Disaster RiskReduction and the ASEAN Day for Disaster Management (October 13).
It was part of the project “Urban Resilience to ClimateExtremes in Southeast Asia” (URCE), aiming to build resilience of urbancommunities and systems to climate extremes by better understanding current andemerging risks./.
