Illustrative image (Source: Kyodo/VNA)HCMCity (VNA) - Over 1,400 students of Binh Dong secondary school in HoChi Minh City have just joined drills of emergency evacuation in case ofnatural disasters such as tsunami and flood, according to the United NationsDevelopment Programme.
Theactivities were organised under the “Schools of Son Tinh” campaign, launched bythe General Department of Disaster Prevention and Control of the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development, under the auspices of the JapanGovernment.
Vietnamis among the ten countries most vulnerable to natural disasters. It istherefore very meaningful for every student to know how to behave appropriatelyin the case of natural disasters, said Kazunori Hosoya, Deputy Consul-Generalof Japan to HCM City.
In2017, the country was hit by 16 storms. More than four million people wereaffected by floods, mudslides and landslides caused by heavy winds anddownpours. Thousands of houses were damaged, communities evacuated, and tens ofthousands of hectares of crops were destroyed.
The“Schools of Son Tinh” campaign is part of the UNDP’s and Japan’s regionalproject “Strengthening School Preparedness for Tsunamis in the Asia-PacificRegion” in 18 Asia-Pacific countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia,Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa,Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu and Vietnam.
Theproject contributes to the achievement of the UN Sendai Framework’s targets toreduce lives lost, numbers of people affected, and economic damage from naturaland human-induced hazards. It also aims to achieve the UNDP’s goal to helpvulnerable regions to adapt to climate change by integrating disaster riskmeasures into national strategies.-VNA
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