Thousands of poor households in central region benefited from flood resistant housing project

Illustrative image. Source: VNA

According to VNA, 19,244 poor households in the central region have received support to build and repair their houses to become more resilient to storm and flooding, thanks to the Government’s policy to assist them in the field.

So far, VND 661.6 billion (USD 28.76 million) has been spent on the work, including VND 249.6 billion  (roughly USD 11 billion) from the State budget, VND192 billion (USD 8,28 million) of loans from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, and the rest from other sources.

The scheme covers 14 localities from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan, but Binh Thuan has been put out of the programme. Six out of the 13 engaging localities have completed the allocation of the aid, while the rest has finished 70 percent.

Each household in poor localities received VND 14 million (USD 603), while those in areas with extremely difficult conditions got 16 million VND each, and the remaining beneficiaries enjoyed VND 12 million (USD 517) each. At the same time, soft loans have been offered to the households.

Over the years, programmes to support poor households in the central region to build and upgrade their houses to respond to storms and floods have helped ensure safety for the beneficiaries, thus contributing to the economic development in the localities.

Thanks to the programmes, the number of damaged houses and death toll causedby flooding were reduced to 126,000 and 57 in 2011, respectively, from 263,000 and 179 in 2009, showed the statistics from the Ministry of Construction.

The ministry reported that the programme to support locals in flood-hit localities in the central region inhouse construction and repairing has benefited more than 170,000 households, of whom 122,450 enjoyed newly-built houses.

Initial reports from localities showed that no houses built and upgraded with aids from the programme were seriously damaged in the recent flooding.

A report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said natural disasters, mostly flooding, tropical storms and landslides, left 133 people dead and missing last year, down 40 percent from 2018.

They caused losses worth around VND 7 trillion (USD 302.6 million), a third of the previous year's figure of VND 20 trillion (USD 858 million).

Eight tropical storms and four tropical depressions hit the country last year as against 13 storms and depressions the previous year that claimed 181 lives and left 37 people missing.

According to the World Bank, 70 percent of Vietnam’s population are vulnerable to typhoons, floods, droughts, storm surges, saltwater intrusion, landslides, forest fires, and occasional earthquakes.

The risks are exacerbated by climate change. Floods and storms are the most common calamities, accounting for more than 40 percent of all natural disasters.

Phuong Nguyen