Nearly 85,000 people in central Vietnam have directly got benefit from a $600,000 disaster risk reduction project funded by the Norwegian Red Cross over the past two years. The information was released at a recent meeting held by the Vietnam Red Cross in the central province of Phu Yen to review the project which has been carried out in 12 communes in provinces of Phu Yen and Binh Dinh. The project is aimed at boosting capacity and skills of local residents, cadres, and Red Cross members, especially women, children, the disabled and elderly, in mitigating and tackling the negative impacts of natural calamities, as well as upgrading local infrastructure and providing communications equipment. It has also helped provide training courses for over 300 teachers and 4,000 pupils; as well as build nine evacuation sites to accommodate 2,700-4,500 people and roads to prevent floods. Under the project, around 1,000 local households have received financial supports to buy water tanks and water filters, and 26 disadvantaged families got money to build new houses. Next year, the project is expected to be implemented in five more communes in Phu Yen, Binh Dinh and Lao Cai provinces. Earlier, the Japanese Red Cross also pledged $2.76 million in aid for a project on natural disaster risk reduction in Vietnam from now until 2015, which will benefit 346 vulnerable communes in eight northernmost coastal provinces and 10 communes of two extended mountainous provinces of Vinh Phuc and Hoa Binh. (vov.vn Dec 17, vietnamplus.vn Dec 17)
