Pilot landslide warning systems will be set up in six mountainousregions this year in a bid to save lives and minimise infrastructuredamage.
It is part of a larger project involving 37mountainous areas across the country, which has just been approved bythe Prime Minister.
The first landslide warning systemswill be set up in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau and Hoa Binh inthe north, and the central province of Nghe An. These provinces,which have relatively high populations, are particularly prone tolandslides.
Under the project, a database of informationon landslides will be compiled in order to minimise future damage andloss of life due to natural disasters.
Deputy Minister ofNatural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said local authoritieswould be able to base their residential resettlement policies andlong-term strategies to mitigate the effects of landslides on theinformation obtained from the project, which will run from 2012 and2020.
The project's first phase, which ends in 2015, willinvolve mapping an area prone to landslides stretching from the north tothe Central Highlands. The second phase of the project, which will runfrom 2016 to 2020, will be based on the results of the first phase.
Tran Tan Van, director of the Institute for Geological and MineralSciences, said that mapping landslides and installing warning stationsis expensive and difficult, but nonetheless vital to the security oflocal people.
"Furthermore, many areas have stronggeological variations taking place daily due to people's activities. So,in order to have accurate and timely warnings about landslides,localities need to update their geological situation regularly," Vansaid.
Tran Kim Phan, head of the Department of Irrigationand Flood Control in northern Hoa Binh province, said: "The project isreally meaningful to limit damage caused by landslides and rockslides."
He said landslides, including those triggered by floods, killed threepeople and damaged large swathes of paddy fields and farmland in theprovince last year.
Last February, a landslide in Mai Chau district killed two people.
"Landslides are continuing to take place, and the highway is still being cleared," Phan said.
The most notorious recent landslide, which killed 20 people and injuredsix, occurred last April in central Nghe An province's Yen Thanhdistrict.-VNA
It is part of a larger project involving 37mountainous areas across the country, which has just been approved bythe Prime Minister.
The first landslide warning systemswill be set up in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau and Hoa Binh inthe north, and the central province of Nghe An. These provinces,which have relatively high populations, are particularly prone tolandslides.
Under the project, a database of informationon landslides will be compiled in order to minimise future damage andloss of life due to natural disasters.
Deputy Minister ofNatural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said local authoritieswould be able to base their residential resettlement policies andlong-term strategies to mitigate the effects of landslides on theinformation obtained from the project, which will run from 2012 and2020.
The project's first phase, which ends in 2015, willinvolve mapping an area prone to landslides stretching from the north tothe Central Highlands. The second phase of the project, which will runfrom 2016 to 2020, will be based on the results of the first phase.
Tran Tan Van, director of the Institute for Geological and MineralSciences, said that mapping landslides and installing warning stationsis expensive and difficult, but nonetheless vital to the security oflocal people.
"Furthermore, many areas have stronggeological variations taking place daily due to people's activities. So,in order to have accurate and timely warnings about landslides,localities need to update their geological situation regularly," Vansaid.
Tran Kim Phan, head of the Department of Irrigationand Flood Control in northern Hoa Binh province, said: "The project isreally meaningful to limit damage caused by landslides and rockslides."
He said landslides, including those triggered by floods, killed threepeople and damaged large swathes of paddy fields and farmland in theprovince last year.
Last February, a landslide in Mai Chau district killed two people.
"Landslides are continuing to take place, and the highway is still being cleared," Phan said.
The most notorious recent landslide, which killed 20 people and injuredsix, occurred last April in central Nghe An province's Yen Thanhdistrict.-VNA
