(VNF) - The “Building disaster resilient societies in Vietnam (Phase II)”, project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is now in its second year.

As the nation is celebrating the Flood, Storm and Calamity Prevention Day (May 22nd, 1946), IFM is a comprehensive approach to review all of existing development plans from the view point of flood risks and future impacts considering climate change.

Therefore, the participation of various sectors is essential to formulate the plan. Although the main counterpart at central level is the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the project is conducted in close collaboration with Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change (DMHCC) and National Hydro-Meteorology Service (NHMS) of the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment (MONRE) for hydro-meteorological data assessment.

In the Phase I, the integrated flood management plan (IFMP) was formulated in the central province of Thua Thien - Hue. Now, follow-up activities are being implemented in order to support this province to put its IFMP into practice.

Besides, taking advantage of the achievements and lessons learnt from Phase I, the Phase II aims at strengthening the capacity for IFM planning and implementation at the central level and in targeted provinces including Nghe An, Quang Binh, Ha Tinh and Thua Thien-Hue, of which, Quang Binh had been chosen as the pilot province to formulate its IFMP.

In this project, a number of Japanese experts have been dispatched to Vietnam for transferring technology and Vietnamese counterparts are received for training in Japan.

Besides, other activities such as building pilot “Small scale/Low cost” riverbank protection works in Quang Binh and Ha Tinh provinces; building dam protection manual in Quang Binh province; and river dyke inspection manual in Ca river system in Nghe An province were also conducted.

By making pilot small scale and low cost riverbank protection works, with community participation and local materials, using Japanese traditional method with suitable modifications to fit local conditions in Vietnam, the project expects that Vietnamese counterpart can utilize this technology of the work in order to build other works by themselves even after finishing the project.

As Japan is also among disaster-prone countries, it has accumulated various expertise and experiences in alleviation of natural disaster impacts. It is hoped that Japan’s know-how will be successfully transferred to Vietnamese counterparts./.

( VNF )