A road is blocked by a landslide in the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang. (Photo: VNA) Dao Thi Hong, chief representative of Catholic Relief Services,said that for the last more than 20 years, this organisation has coordinatedclosely with Vietnamese authorities to support disaster risk mitigation,emergency aid, and settlement of disaster consequences.
In particular, it has worked to help improve the capacity oftaking early action and delivering emergency aid. In 2023 - 2024, it has been workingwith the Disaster and Dyke Management Authority under the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the People’s Committee of Dien Bantown, central Quang Nam province, to carry out a project on enhancing earlyaction to effectively prevent natural disasters in the central region.
Hong expressed her hope that thanks to efforts by all the organisationspresent at the meeting, early action will become fruitful and help people andcommunities minimise losses caused by natural disasters. It will also be apractical move to implement the Ha Long Statement on the Strengthening of ASEANAnticipatory Actions in Disaster Management, adopted at the 11th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting onDisaster Management on October 12 this year.
Ramla Al Khalidi, Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP)in Vietnam, noted that UNDP and MARD have completed the building andinstallation of 24 early warning stations in coastal communes with highdisaster risks in seven provinces, and they will give assistance in operatingthe stations in the first quarter of 2024.
UNDP and the Disaster and Dyke Management Authority have alsocompleted a training course for representatives of seven central provinces on the use of drones toevaluate risks and damage and determine evacuation routes/locations, she noted.
Early warning for all must be the key to early action and resilienceenhancement, Khalidi continued, adding that UNDP hopes all the partners in disasterrisk reduction will join hands to support early warning-related activities.
MARD Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep, head of the Disaster Risk ReductionPartnership, said early action is not only a global orientation and part of anASEAN statement on disaster risk mitigation, but it is also a target for thenear future of organisations, agencies, and sectors in the field of naturaldisaster prevention and control.
He called on each partner, with its resources and strength, tostand by side with people of disaster-hit areas to help them stay as mostactive as possible in the face of natural disasters.
At the meeting, participants reviewed the results in 2023 anddiscussed orientations for activities next year./.
VNA
