Enhancing Vietnam’s capacity in disaster preparedness

(VNF) - The Vietnam Red Cross Society, with the technical support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the German Red Cross (GRC), is organizing simulation exercises on Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in six wards of Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa cities.
October 09, 2015 | 18:12

(VNF) - The Vietnam Red Cross Society, with the technical support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the German Red Cross (GRC), is organizing simulation exercises on Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in six wards of Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa cities.

The exercises are designed to assess the City and Ward Committee for Disaster Risk Management (CDRM)’s coordination mechanism and local population’s capacity to prepare and respond to flood and storm.

The simulation exercises involve almost 1,300 local people, government staff, and volunteers, and aim at preparing the participants to cope with a disaster scenario developed from experiences of previous natural disasters. This activity is conducted within the framework of a 18-months project: Proofing and Drainage for medium-sized coastal cities in Vietnam for adaptation to Climate change - Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Component, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented jointly by GIZ and GRC.

In Vietnam, coastal cities such as Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh province) and Tuy Hoa (Phu Yen province) are increasingly threatened by climate change through extreme weather events and rising sea levels. Most of the cities are inadequately prepared for flooding from rivers, the sea and intense rainfall. As a result, communities must adapt to a higher flood risk. Frequent and severe flooding increased by climate change will continue to cause damages and losses unless risk reduction and adaptation strategies are implemented on all levels and across all sectors.

Thus, the capability of the local population and governmental authorities of better preparing and responding to emergencies and disasters has been strengthened during the project. This has been achieved through the development of local DRM plans, risk maps and through trainings and awareness campaigns of best practices before, during and after disasters.

Enhancing Vietnam’s capacity in disaster preparedness
Two first simulation exercises took place in Phu Dong ward (Tuy Hoa city) and Hai Cang ward (Quy Nhon city) on October 6th and 9th. The ward population reinforced their houses, put their important documents and belongings in safe places as well as stored food and water and evacuated in good order following the CDRM ward’s guidance.

Meanwhile, Emergency Response Team (ERT) members rescued victims and performed first-aid. The exercise finished with damage and need assessment followed by emergency relief implemented by the ward CDRM members. Then, ERT teams supported local people to safely return to their homes.

“The drills concretize all the learning gained along the project’s implementation. This is the only way to actually measure the capacities of all the stakeholders to face and respond to natural disasters. The involvement of the local population is crucial because Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is not the sole duty of the government or the Red Cross, but the business of everyone”, said Mr Jerome Faucet, DRR/Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Program Coordinator from GRC.

Similar simulation exercises will be performed in four other remaining wards in Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa cities until October 11th, 2015./.

( VNF )

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