Flood-proof housing programme to be extended

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has agreed to extend a programme to build flood-proof resident areas in the Mekong Delta region through 2020, housing over 8,400 additional households.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has agreed to extend a programme to buildflood-proof resident areas in the Mekong Delta region through 2020,housing over 8,400 additional households.

He urgedthe Ministry of Construction to work with other ministries andlocalities to review programme beneficiaries while continuing lendingand extending payments for people living in poverty.

Regional localities should consider the programme their key politicaltask, he stated during a conference to review the programme’s secondphase on April 10 in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang.

It is also crucial to listen to local feedback during theimplementation of the programme to ensure social consensus as well asmobilising all possible resources for the programme, he urged.

Highlighting the special role and position of 13 Mekong Deltalocalities as a major economic region of the country, PM Nguyen Tan Dungnoted that the region is prone to devastating naturaldisasters—especially floods, adding that the Mekong Delta is forecast tobe one of the hardest hit areas by climate change.

Launched in 2011, the flood-proof residential areas building programme has produced a number of results.

In the first phase from 2011-2008, as many as 804 smaller projects toconstruct flood-resilient areas and dyke systems were implemented withan investment of 5.77 trillion VND (288 million USD), protecting 146,000households in flood-prone areas of eight regional localities.

During the second phase, which is scheduled to finish in 2015, theprogramme aims to provide flood-proof houses for 56,000 more localhouseholds. So far, as much as 97 percent of the workload has beencompleted with as many as 27,185 of the planned 35,595 housesconstructed.

As of the end of 2014, total capitaldisbursement under the programme mounted to nearly 2.86 trillion VND(132.3 million USD) sourced from the central budget, the Bank for theDevelopment of Vietnam and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies.

According to Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung, thanks to theprogramme, human and material damage by storms and floods in the regionwas equal to less than 15 percent of the previous year’s figure.

The programme ensured safety for over 200,000 local households or morethan 1 million people, most of who are impoverished, he noted.

During the conference, locality representatives proposed thatnew-style area building and other poverty reduction project investmentsbe timed to ensure synchronic infrastructure in the flood-proof residentareas in order to enhance local living conditions comprehensively.-VNA

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