The World Bank (WB) has pledged to fund $30 million for a community-based natural disasters risk management program in central Vietnam in the 2011-2015 period, the Lao Dong newspaper reported July 20. The information was released at a meeting held in Hanoi July 19 to announce the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2011 (GAR 11). The event is aimed to assess global disaster risk mitigation in order to work out development investment plans, especially Vietnam’s public investment in climate change adaptation projects. The GAR11 focuses on the demand to carefully and comprehensively calculate the losses caused by natural calamities and propose a new model for disaster risk management. The GAR11 is a major initiative of the United Nations that contributes to the Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) through monitoring risk patterns, trends and progress in disaster risk reduction, while providing guidance to governmental and non-governmental organizations for cooperation in reducing the risks of natural disasters. Vietnam is severely affected by many kinds of natural disasters each year, including floods, landslides, droughts, tropical storms and hail, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Dao Xuan Hoc said, adding that natural calamities seem to have become more complicated amid global climate change. Natural disasters have claimed 500 Vietnamese lives and caused a loss of around VND14.5 trillion annually in recent five years, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said. Natural calamities have also left 66 dead and missing, damaged over 10,000 houses and inundated 67,000 hectares of rice and other crops, causing a total damage of VND2.2 trillion ($106.79 million) in the first six months of 2011. (Lao Dong – Labor July 20 p3, Tin Tuc – News July 20 p7, Thoi Bao Kinh Te – Vietnam Economic Times July 20 p4, thanhtra.com.vn July 19)
