20/11/2008Rising sea-levels, more intense typhoons, higher temperatures and increased flooding and drought threaten to drag millions of Vietnamese people back into poverty, an Oxfam report reveals today.
In the report, Viet Nam: Climate Change, Adaptation and Poor People, Oxfam shows how Viet Nam has led the way to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 but how the country, identified as among the ten most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, is set to see this success reversed unless urgent global action is taken.
The report comes ten days before the UN climate change negotiations convene at Poznan, where Oxfam is calling for rich countries to lead the way in cutting global emissions by at least 80%, and committing to funding so that poor communities like those in Viet Nam can adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.
Steve Price-Thomas, Oxfam's country director in Viet Nam said: "Viet Nam has been one of the most successful countries in lifting people away from the clutches of poverty but unless urgent global action is taken, climate change is set to push them back. Rising sea-levels, torrential rain and flooding, land salinisation and drought are already devastating people's lives and climate models show that Viet Nam can expect much worse.
"It is essential that rich countries at Poznan lead the way in tackling climate change so that poor countries like Viet Nam can better cope with its impacts and continue to prosper in a low-carbon way."
The report focuses on two provinces: Ben Tre in the south's low-lying Mekong Delta and the coastal Quang Tri further north, which is traditionally the most vulnerable to flooding in the country. People are used to living in extreme weather conditions, but all those questioned agreed that weather patterns had changed over the past 20-30 years, making it harder to make a living and survive.
In the Mekong Delta, where enough rice is produced to make Viet Nam the second biggest rice exporter in the world, some rice farmers cannot grow their crops because the water is too salty, partly as a result of climate change. Salt intrusion is hampering other crop production, making it harder for people to make a living. Typhoons have become more intense and have tracked further south so that they have become more commonplace in Ben Tre, which was once typhoon-free. Typhoon Durian in December 2006, claimed 18 lives in the province. A further 700 were injured and a total $200million-worth of damage was caused – equivalent to about two-thirds of the province's total exports in 2001-2005.
Further north in Quang Tri, unpredictable weather means farmers have less time to grow crops, and seeds can be washed away by the heavier rainfall. Livestock has also been lost to increased flooding while the hotter dry spells make it even harder for farmers to make a living.
Farmer, Ho Si Thuan, 46, who lives in Quang Tri, told Oxfam: "Twenty years ago, being a farmer seemed extremely easy as the weather was predictable. It wasn't so hot in the dry season and there was less flooding. Last year, our first crop of rice was affected by early flooding. We could only harvest 200kg, and it was poor quality so we had to feed it to the pigs. This year, it was very cold and the rice seedlings died."
Work by Oxfam to help poor communities adapt to climate change is already underway. Some farmers are using drought-resistant crops, lifeboats have been provided in some areas and people have been taught how to swim. Wooden platforms have also been installed in homes for people to escape flood levels and store food away from the rising water.
However, the financing challenge is huge for a developing country like Viet Nam. The government has set aside $750million for protection and the building of dykes between 2010 and 2020. But this figure does not take into account the impacts of climate change, which will require far more funding. A UN report concluded that the extra money needed to adapt to climate change in poor countries is beyond the capacity of most national governments (1). Outside funding assistance is required in Viet Nam, and Oxfam believes it is rich countries, who are most responsible for climate change, that should lead the way in committing to such adaptation funding.
Price-Thomas said: "Clearly, climate change is already happening and turning people's lives upside down in Viet Nam. The futures of millions of poor people in Viet Nam and around the world depend on the right decisions being taken in Poznan so that we can support people who are living - through no fault of their own - on the frontline of climate change."
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For more information, interviews, images or to see the report, contact Lucy Brinicombe, 01865 472192 / 07786 110054.
Notes to editors:
1) The UN's Human Development Report 2007/8
Viet Nam has experienced a reduction in poverty from about 58% in 1993 to 18% in 2006, pulling 34 million people above the poverty line through economic growth and sound development policies.
Despite already feeling the impacts of climate change, Viet Nam's emissions are among the lowest in the world, amounting to just 0.35% of all greenhouse gas global emissions in 2000.
Annual temperatures have risen in Viet Nam by 0.1 degrees C per decade between 1939 and 2000, and between 0.4 and 0.8 degrees C in the country's three main cities from 1991 to 2000.
Wide regional variations in rainfall have been recorded, but the annual volume has remained largely stable. However, the localised intensity and unpredictability of the rainfall has increased, causing severe floods.
There have been more droughts in the south in recent years, which have tended to last longer.
The sea level has risen between 2.5 to 3.0 centimetres per decade in the last 50 years, with regional variations. Viet Nam is one of the top two countries in the world most at risk from a one metre rise in sea level by 2100 and most at risk in East Asia.
Typhoons have become less frequent in the past 40 years but they have intensified and are tracking southwards.
El Nino / La Nina weather events have become more intense in the last 50 years, causing more typhoons, floods and droughts.
Full report at : http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/climate_change/viet_nam_report08.html
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Kelman Ilan* and Gaillard J.C.
*Our editor from CICERO, P.O. Box 1129, Blindern, Oslo, N-0318, NORWAY
ilan_kelman@hotmail.com |
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Introduction
In late 2007, climate change received extensive international prominence with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former US Vice President Al Gore being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their climate change work. This award, focusing exclusively on climate change, obscured the tireless research and practice of many others dedicated to linking climate change, other climate topics and related environmental concerns within the context of development, environmental management, and sustainability processes. Some of that work emerged from studies, policy and action in disaster risk reduction, which extends back for decades. Yet that work, to a large degree, has not been acknowledged by climate change science, even when approaches selected, developed, and applied are similar to previous endeavours.
That means that climate change policy and action miss out on the long experience from dealing with disasters including climate-related disasters. In many ways, climate change science and policy have been reinventing already existing knowledge, methods and conclusions. To reduce such repetition and to ensure greater connection amongst sustainability topics, this editorial proposes the framing of climate change research to connect to policy more smoothly by placing climate change work within disaster work.
Climate change’s research and policy role
The development of climate change science and policy in a manner relatively divorced from past work on human adjustment to change6,8,10,13,18 leads to two suggestions for the current role of climate change on the research and policy agenda: climate change as a distraction and climate change as a scapegoat.
1. Climate change as a distraction: Climate change has been receiving plenty of publicity as not only a global crisis but also as perhaps the greatest global crisis which humanity has ever faced9. There is little doubt that climate change resulting from human activity is an immense, long-term, global disaster. Even if human greenhouse gas emissions were to stop entirely today, we would still be facing climate change’s legacy for many generations into the future.
We would also be facing many other immense, long-term, global disasters. Irrespective of climate change, coastal floods continue to kill thousands of people due to social pressures, such as gender and ethnic inequities; manipulation of living conditions and livelihoods by richer people, governments and corporations; and failure to address poverty. At current rates of fishing, “the global collapse of all taxa currently fished by the mid-21st century” is predicted with climate change being a minor contribution compared to the root cause of poor resource management, i.e. overfishing.20 Many deltas are threatened by sea level rise, but climate change is suggested as being the sole culprit for the inhabitants’ vulnerability to the sea, even where groundwater extraction or gas mining has led to significant subsidence or where upstream dams have diminished the sediment flux—which are the main problems in many case studies.5
Powerful interests behind overfishing and other resource extraction such as large-scale logging have even argued that climate change will ruin these resources, so humanity might as well exploit them now while they still exist. Without climate change, these interests would still be involved in such destructive activities and would still be ignoring the consequences, but climate change provides a welcome distraction for them to attempt to shift the focus of their actions and the consequences.
Compared to justifying the need to tackle climate change, how much science and policy effort is put into tackling the root cause of such destructive values? Climate change is one manifestation amongst many of unsustinable environmental and cultural values along with the failure to address fundamental, behavioural and attitudinal causes. It is an important manifestation, but many others exist too. Focusing on climate change distracts from those others. The same vulnerability root causes which lead to climate change induced or exacerbated flood and heat wave disaters also lead to non climate change related flood and heat wave disasters—along with earthquake disasters, volcano disasters, sanitation disasters, poverty disasters, inequity disasters and injustice disasters amongst many more.
One argument is that climate change is a healthy distraction. If climate change concerns help people to change their habits and help governments to change their policies, then is it important why these changes occur as long as the changes occur in a desired direction? Many people need to label phenomena and need something to fix on regarding change. Climate change gives them that. As long appropriate actions are promoted, such as turning off unused lights and using private vehicles less often, does it matter why that behaviour is enacted?
The answer depends on the honesty to admit the root cause as being values, the honesty to admit that superficial approaches not tackling root causes can cause more harm than good and the honesty to accept that many disaster-related concerns exist aside from climate change which need to be tackled with as much vigour as climate change. Focusing on a single climate change, challenge is dishonest in failing to acknowledge other equally important concerns. If dishonesty is accepted in order to convince people and governments regarding appropriate behaviour, where does that dishonesty stop?
Climate change as a distraction means that other disasters, from over fishing to tsunamis striking vulnerable coastal settlements, are neglected and that root causes are buried.
2. Climate change as a scapegoat: Putting climate change in the spotlight means that it becomes a scapegoat for many global ills which existed long before climate change. The most prominent examples being blamed on climate change are high-profile disasters, including non-climate events. Climate change has been changing the characteristics of weather and climate phenomena, but did not cause the vulnerability to them.
The responsibility of climate change for all disasters has become so prevalent that the 26 December 2004 tsunamis around the Indian Ocean were linked to climate change by numerous commentators, prompting a rebuttal explaining that climate change did not cause the tsunami, nor many other disasters witnessed.17 Revisiting the examples of deltas from the previous section, increaingly worse floods around northern Manila Bay in the Philippines are identified as a clear example where excesive groundwater extraction causes far more subsidence than the relative rise which will be experienced from sea levels changing, but the government focuses on blaming climate change, conveniently ignoring the other factors.16
Climate change serves as a useful scapegoat for disasters at several levels. First, greenhouse gas emissions are dispersed, coming from global, mainly non-point sources, even though some countries and industries emit far more than others. It is relatively easy to accept climate change as a problem, and to blame climate change for problems witnessed, without accepting responsibility for one’s own actions at an individual, institutional, or governmental level. For example, what is the carbon footprint of IPCC-related travel, especially given the detailed critiques of carbon offsets1,4 which might suggest that offsetting is an inadequate approach for addressing the carbon cost of travel ?
Second, with climate change being identified as the cause of disasters, the responsibility for comprehensive disaster risk reduction is absolved. The prior decades of poor development in locations such as the USA, Mozambique and the Philippines which placed people in vulnerable situations and the failure to prepare for a major catastrophe in the affected locations, are swept aside because climate change provides a convenient contemporary catch-all as the cause of these disasters.
Without climate change as a distraction, the fallacy of climate change as a scapegoat is evident in that other causes must be addressed for why the disasters occurred; that is, placing people in vulnerable situations without adequate support for overcoming that vulnerability. That root cause is under the control of individuals institutions and governments and the responsibility should be directed at them rather than using climate change as a scapegoat to avoid responsibility.
Framing climate change research and policy
Interest and work in disasters long preceded interest in contemporary climate change8,15,20 while fields from anthropology to psychology to engineering to development have long published on humans successfully dealing with change and avoiding adverse consequences. That work incorporates most aspects relevant to addressing and dealing with the consequences of contemporary climate change. In fact, disasters covering large areas (up to global) and long time scales (decades or more) have long been on the disaster agenda, such as ice ages, desertification and climatic changes from meteorite strikes and volcanic eruptions. Contemporary climate change is simply one more to add to this well-established list.
Therefore, we propose that research and policy should accept contemporary climate change as a subset of disaster risk reduction. This premise has three points.
First, climate change is one driver of disasters amongst many. It should not be ignored but nor does it dominate other drivers. Those drivers include inequities, injustices, social oppression, discrimination, poor wealth distribution and a value system which permits exploitation of environmental resources irrespective of the consequences6,7,11,12,14,19.
Secondly climate change is one “creeping environmental change” amongst many. Creeping environmental changes are incremental changes in conditions which cumulate to create a major catastrophe or crisis, apparent only after a threshold has been crossed.2,3 Climate change fulfils that definition and is not unique. Other creeping environmental changes not linked to climate change include soil erosion due to intensive farming, salinisation of freshwater supplies due to excessve drawdown and slow subsidence of land due to water puping. In all these cases, as with climate change, human acion exacerbates natural trends. As such, climate change is one long-term human-exacerbated disaster amongst many.
Thirdly, the reality is that climate change has become politically important and has reached the public consciousness around the world, not just in more affluent countries or sectors. That should provide an opportunity, not to focus on climate change, but to raise the points made in this editorial to engage interest in more comprehensive disaster risk reduction, environmental management, and sustainability processes. For example, little point exists in building a new school with natural ventilation techniques that save energy and that will function in extreme climate change scenarios, if that school will collapse in the next moderate, shallow earthquake. Similarly, if a hospital built for climate change serves only the most affluent people, then that sets back the developmental process by expanding the rich-poor gap.
By embedding climate change within disaster risk reduction while using the prominence of climate change to promote and achieve the wider agenda, a long-term perspective is ensured so that related research better serves policy and practice. That avoids being distracted by climate change and also directs attention to root causes and basic ideas, ensuring that a single issue is not highlighted and permitted to become a target or a scapegoat. We can move forward with disaster risk reduction, development and sustainability by incorporating, but not making exclusive, the single, narrow topic of climate change.
References
1. Bonnett A., The need for sustainable conferences, Area, 38(3), 229-230 (2006)
2. Glantz M.H., Creeping Environmental Problems, The World & I, June, 218-225 (1994)
3. Glantz M.H., Creeping environmental phenomena: Are societies equipped to deal with them?, Proceedings of Workshop held on 7-10 February 1994, Boulder, Colorado, (1994)
4. Gössling S. et al, Voluntary carbon offsetting schemes for aviation: efficiency and credibility, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 15(3), 223-248 (2007)
5. GWSP-LOICZ-CSDMS, Dynamics and Vulnerability of River Delta Systems, Minutes from a workshop held in Boulder, Colorado, 26-28 September, (2007)
6. Hewitt K. (ed.), Interpretations of Calamity from the Viewpoint of Human Ecology, Allen & Unwin, London (1983)
7. Hewitt K., Preventable Disasters: Addressing Social Vulnerability, Institutional Risk, and Civil Ethics, Geographisches Rundscahu, 3(1), 43-52 (2007)
8. Hewitt K. and Burton I., The Hazardousness of a Place: A Regional Ecology of Damaging Events, University of Toronto Press, Toronto (1971)
9. King D., Climate Change Science: Adapt, Mitigate, or Ignore? Science, 303, 176-177 (2004)
10. Lewis J., A Primer of Precautionary Planning for (against!) Natural Disaster, Bradford Disaster Research Unit Occasional, University of Bradford, Bradford (1977)
11. Lewis J., Development in Disaster-prone Places: Studies of Vulnerability, Intermediate Technology Publications, UK (1999)
12. Mileti D. and 136 contributing authors, Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States, Joseph Henry Press, Washington, DC (1999)
13. O’Keefe P., Westgate K. and Wisner B., Taking the naturalness out of natural disasters, Nature, 260, 566-567 (1976)
14. Oliver-Smith T., The Martyred City: Death and Rebirth in the Andes, University of New Mexico Press, NM (1986)
15. Prince S.H., Catastrophe and Social Change, Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University, New York (1920)
16. Rodolfo K.S. and Siringan F.P., Global sea-level rise is recognised, but flooding from anthropogenic land subsidence is ignored around northern Manila Bay, Philippines, Disasters, 30(1), 118-139 (2006)
17. Sarewitz D. and Pielke Jr. R.A., Rising Tide: The Tsunami’s Real Cause, The New Republic, January 17 (2005)
18. White G.F., Human Adjustment to Floods: A Geographical Approach to the Flood Problem in the United States, Doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago, Department of Geography (1942)
19. Wisner B. et al, At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters, 2nd ed., Routledge, London (2004)
20. Worm B. et al, Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services, Science, 314, 787-790 (2006) | According to the latest new report issued by the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control (CCFSC) on November 20, there were four more people reported dead as the result of the Typhoon 10 bringing the total number of deaths to 9. Other damage was also reported and can be summarized as follows:
Human:
- No. of deaths: 9 (increased 4 including Phu Yen: 1; Binh Dinh: 1; Lam Dong: 1; Quang Nam: 1);
- No. of people missing: 1
- No. of people injured: 9
Boats (no changes reported)
Housing:
- No. of house collapsed: 16 (increased 12 including Phu Yen: 2; Ninh Thuan:2; Quang Ngai: 2; Lam Dong: 2; Binh Dinh: 8)
- No. of houses damaged: 140 (including Binh Dinh: 46; Phu Yen: 38; Khanh Hoa: 26; Ninh Thuan: 26; and Lam Dong: 4);
- No. of houses flooded: 1,457 (including Binh Dinh: 1,207; Quang Ngai: 250)
Agriculture:
- Rice fields and short-term crops flooded: 5,379ha;
- No. of cattle and livestock dead and washed away: 3,652;
- Areas of aquaculture flooded: 1,228ha
Transportation and Irrigation:
- Land and rock eroded: 108.740 m3;
- Length of rural roads damaged: 45,574m;
VietNamNet Bridge – While Vietnamese farmers cannot sell their rice, high-quality rice has been flocking in from Cambodia, and low-quality rice is being sent by farmers from the Cuu Long River Delta to HCM City. What is happening with the rice market?
Dr Le Van Banh, Head of the Cuu Long River Delta Rice Research Institute, and Dr Vo Tong Xuan, former Headmaster of An Giang University, talk about this.
How can imported rice flow into Vietnam when Vietnamese rice is so cheap?
Dr Le Van Banh: Vietnamese people’s living standards have improved, and they have a demand for high-quality rice. Meanwhile, a big percentage of rice in the Cuu Long River Delta has low quality, while imports have higher quality.
Dr Vo Tong Xuan: For the last few years, people in the hamlets at Tinh Bien border gate areas have worked as hired porters to earn their living. They carry rice from Cambodia to Vietnam. Not only rice from Cambodia, rice from Thailand has also been arriving in Vietnam.
Thai fragrant rice cannot be sold in Thailand, because the quality cannot meet the standards of the country. Meanwhile, the rice can be sold in Vietnam and can bring profit.
In 2006, the government of Vietnam kicked off the project ‘one million tonnes of high-quality rice for export’. Why do we still lack high-quality rice?
Dr Le Van Banh: The project’s implementation will take until 2010. Currently, we still do not have enough high-quality rice.
The low-quality rice will certainly go for low prices. Why do Vietnamese farmers still grow low-quality rice?
Dr Le Van Banh: A rice fever occurred in early 2008, when there was not a big gap between low- and high-quality rice. Meanwhile, the low-quality IR50404 variety could bring high yield and had a short growing time, and thus became the choice of farmers.
Dr Vo Tong Xuan: IR50404 is the high-yield and easy-to-grow variety, which can yield 7-8 tonnes/ha/crop. The variety is also insect-resistant, and can be grown in all kinds of soil.
Is it because all farmers grow IR50404 that we have an oversupply?
Dr Le Van Banh: No one tells farmers what to grow. Farmers came to our institute and only asked for IR50404.
Dr Vo Tong Xuan: No one orders the high-quality rice, like jasmine, which has low productivity, therefore, farmers dare not grow this kind of rice.
What do you think Vietnam needs to do to make the rice market more stable and help farmers get bigger profit?
Dr Vo Tong Xuan: It is necessary to urge food companies, which well know the demands of the market, to tell farmers what to grow.
Which variety of rice should farmers grow?
Dr Vo Tong Xuan: I heard that farmers have been told not to grow IR50404, but no one has told them what to grow.
Dr Le Van Banh: It is not advisable to grow scented rice, because the market is narrow, while Vietnam’s scented rice does not have good a trademark and is not competitive. 19/11/2008
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| A motorcycle breaks down on a flooded street in Khanh Hoa Province’s Nha Trang Town. |
| A succession of forecasts about impending storms and floods have gone awry but the weather chief blames it on inadequate staffing and equipment. |
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As central coastal provinces struggled with the loss of life and the damage caused by storm Noul (Red Sky), questions were being raised about the inaccuracy of forecasts.
Director Bui Van Duc of the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF) met with local media in Hanoi Tuesday to offer information about recent inaccuracies in the center’s forecasts.
On Sunday, the center had forecast Storm Noul would hit waters off the southern coast Monday and touch down on the mainland in southern provinces a day later.
In late September, the storm Mekkhala had hit north-central provinces hours earlier than forecast by the center.
The torrential rains in Hanoi late October and early this month were also not correctly forecast. The center later warned of more heavy rain and inundation in the area while waters began to recede and recovery work got underway. This did not happen.
“We have done our best with an awareness of our responsibility,” director Duc said.
However, Duc admitted that the forecasts had been way off the mark. He said: “The quality of the center’s forecasts was not adequate during last one month and a half. We didn’t fulfill our responsibility.”
It was currently “impossible” to forecast flashfloods and some storms and the ability to forecast typhoons was limited, he said.
“We are yet to be able to forecast the amount of rain,” he noted. “However, we have to say the rains would be between 100 and 150 millimeters, for example, without any clear base.”
Duc blamed lack of equipment and qualified personnel for the problem.
“We have only one experienced person for each shift of five people,” he said. “Sometimes, they are incompetent in solving problems and besides, there have been instances of carelessness in referring and analyzing information from other sources.
“However, there would be none left to do the work if all those people who have tried their best are dismissed,” he added.
Toll rises
At least seven people were dead or missing and 110 seafaring vessels sunk as Noul hit coastal provinces in central Vietnam on Monday before weakening into a tropical depression, causing torrential rains that are forecast to linger until today.
The tenth storm of the season coming in from the East Sea has also triggered floods and landslides that obstructed roads and inundated many localities in Da Nang City and the provinces of Quang Nam, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan.
Nearly 10,000 students in Binh Dinh Province couldn’t come to class until Tuesday after many roads were blocked by the storm in the districts of Tuy Phuoc, Phu Cat, An Nhon and Hoai Nhon.
More than 1,000 households in Khanh Hoa Province’s Cam Ranh Town and Cam Lam District have been evacuated, while authorities in Phu Yen Province were still seeking two missing seamen who were swept off their vessel off the coast of Song Cau District.
The storm also damaged water drainage and irrigating systems, devastated rice paddies and other crops as well as fishery farms and salt fields.
The NCHMF Tuesday forecast more heavy downpours today in most central provinces stretching from Quang Tri in the north to Phu Yen in the south.
The center also said the water levels could rise to alarming levels in most rivers, and cautioned low-lying areas to prepare for possible floods and landslides.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung earmarked VND85 billion (US$5 million) from the state budget to provinces in northern, north-central and central areas for relief and repair work.
The money and 3,700 tons of rice will be distributed to the provinces of Quang Ninh, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Thuan.
Reported by Thanh Nien staff |
Press release No.: IFAD/56/08
Rome, 17 November 2008 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have launched a joint initiative with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which aims to help provide poor rural farmers with financial protection following natural hazard events.
Under the initiative, the foundation is providing US$998,000 in funding to support the research and planning for insurance schemes designed to help shield small farmers from the impact of natural disasters and climate change.
“Poor people in rural areas are vulnerable to the harsh effects of natural hazards, such as drought and floods. Weather index-based insurance can dramatically improve their ability to predict and cope with the impact of severe weather events exacerbated by climate change,” said Ulrich Hess, Chief of Risk Reduction and Disaster Mitigation Policy at WFP and team leader of this IFAD-WFP partnership.
Extreme weather events and natural disasters can devastate agriculture and trap rural households in poverty. Droughts and flooding can impede development and drain a country’s critical financial resources.
Of the nearly one billion people living on less than US$1 a day, three out of four live in rural areas in developing countries. Most depend on agricultural activities for their livelihoods yet lack the institutional and financial capacity to withstand the impact of extreme weather events.
Support from the foundation will be used to assess the experience of ongoing initiatives in index insurance and define the key factors in creating widespread access to index insurance. This analysis will benefit from collaborations of leading public and private sector experts in the field.
The IFAD-WFP team will also develop an overall strategy for a joint Weather Risk Management Facility (WRMF) that would build the capacity of public and private entities in weather insurance and develop and test delivery models for index insurance relevant to rural smallholders.
“This collaboration between IFAD and WFP on index insurance will help bridge the gap between emergency relief and rural development. Affordable insurance can help improve the livelihoods of poor, rural smallholders by enabling them to protect themselves and their financial security, in the event of a crisis,” said Kevin Cleaver, Assistant President of the Programme Management Department at IFAD, emphasizing the agency’s commitment to increasing the ongoing access of smallholders to a wide range of financial services.
Weather index-based insurance schemes have been successfully piloted in a number of countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Nicaragua, Honduras and India. Payouts to farmers who subscribe to the schemes are triggered by pre-defined and independently-verifiable indices tracking events such as lack of rainfall during critical crop growing periods. Weather indexed insurance has also been piloted by WFP as the basis for the first humanitarian insurance policy for Ethiopia.
“This grant supports an important joint initiative that will explore the most sustainable strategies to increase the financial security of millions of people who are living with the constant threat of weather-related disasters,” said Amolo Ng’weno, deputy director of Financial Services for the Poor for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “This collaboration will seek to address some of the most significant issues and challenges associated with providing index insurance products to rural smallholders on a large scale and open their access to savings and other financial services.”
A number of strategic partners will play critical roles in this work, including the World Meteorological Organization, which establishes quality and accessibility standards for weather data around the world. In addition, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) will support the climate science behind this project and disseminate some of the findings. 18/11/2008
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Residents evacuated to the local Children Cultural House in Can Gio District in HCMC Monday |
| A storm expected to hit southern Vietnam Monday veered off its expected course, sparing Ho Chi Minh City, but visited mayhem on six provinces in the south-central region. |
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At least four people were killed, 100 seafaring vessels sunk, 24 fishing vessels with 216 fishermen on board remained out of contact, thousands of hectares of crop inundated as the storm weakened into a tropical low pressure, triggering heavy rains and sending water levels surging.
Extensive measures had been taken by Ho Chi Minh City, and the flood-prone provinces who said Monday that they continued to remain vigilant against the complicated developments of the storm.
The National Hydro-meteorological Center said Monday that the storm, named Noul (Red Sky) by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, had originated off the Philippines coast last Thursday and hit south-central provinces stretching from Khanh Hoa to Ninh Thuan Monday.
The eye of the storm was located between the towns of Cam Ranh and Phan Rang in Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan provinces respectively.
On Sunday, the center had forecast the storm would hit waters off the southern coast Monday and proceed on to mainland south of Ho Chi Minh City today.
The storm subsequently weakened into a tropical low pressure. It would continue moving westward and abate within the next 24 hours, the center said.
But flood-prone provinces said they remained vigilant against the complicated developments of the storm which triggered strong winds, rough seas, and heavy rains in many localities.
The Central Steering Committee for Flood Control and Prevention instructed local authorities in the south-central provinces to take precautionary measures against the storm, the tenth to hit Vietnam this year.
In Khanh Hoa Province, the local government Monday ordered all schools to close without saying when they would reopen.
At least 100 seafaring vessels sunk offshore Monday but no casualties were reported.
Concerned agencies and the provincial coast guards have been marshaled to evacuate around 67,000 residents living in areas susceptible to flashfloods and landslides.
An interim provincial commission was set up in Khanh Hoa Monday to manage flood control operations.
Elsewhere, in Ninh Thuan Province, the local coastguard said they had to struggle to convince residents in Cam Ranh Town, the locality most susceptible to the storm, to evacuate to safer grounds.
“We had to dispatch personnel to each household to persuade them to move. They appeared to be quite indifferent despite heavy rains and rough seas,” Lieutenant Pham Tan Cang told Thanh Nien.
Local authorities also told residents who had solid houses to put up the evacuees.
At least 8,400 residents have been removed to safe places Monday, the provincial administration said.
Meteorological experts said Monday the water in rivers flowing between Phu Yen and Ninh Thuan provinces would continue to surge today and could approach the highest emergency level.
Heavy rains were also expected to lash south-central provinces during the next three days.
Ho Chi Minh City remains alert
Some 2,300 residents of Thanh An Island in HCMC’s outlying Can Gio District were evacuated Monday, the district government said.
Many government headquarters in the district have been mobilized to turn into makeshift shelters for affected residents, local authorities said.
But several residents have still resisted the evacuation order of local authorities.
Speaking at an emergency meeting Monday, city mayor Nguyen Trung Tin instructed agencies concerned to call back seafaring vessels at any cost.
The prevention of possible epidemics and guaranteeing environmental hygiene for evacuees must be another key task, Tin said.
Speaking with Thanh Nien on the phone Monday, Lieutenant-General Le Manh, the Military Zone 7
Commander, said 100 percent of his staff and vehicles had been mobilized to help with evacuation and rescue work.
Interim flood control commissions have been established in Can Gio District and other provinces from Ninh Thuan inward to keep a close watch on the storm.
Another task force was sent to the Mekong Delta Monday in case the storm hit the region.
Helicopters were also kept ready for rescue work, according to authorities.
Vietnam is hit by typhoons and tropical storms from the East Sea every year, mostly along the central coast.
Last year, seven major storms killed more than 435 people in floods and landslides, displacing thousands and leaving vast central areas inundated.
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STORM FACTS
Phu Yen: At least four people have been killed by the floods and around 2,000 hectares of crops inundated.
Binh Dinh: 24 fishing vessels with 216 fishermen on board remained out of communication reach Monday. Agencies concerned said efforts were ongoing to establish contact.
Gia Lai: The floods cut off traffic to many local roads as heavy rains lashed the province for the third consecutive day.
Binh Thuan: Around 9,200 vessels have docked at storm-proof docks. The local government has also asked the Military Zone 7 to send helicopters to carry authorities to the Phu Quy District to oversee preparations. Schools will close for two days. |
Reported by Thanh Nien staff |
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Guillaume Chantry trong một buổi cùng người dân Thừa Thiên - Huế tập huấn chống bão - Ảnh do DW cung cấp |
Hơn 13 năm gắn bó với Thừa Thiên - Huế, ông nhận Huế là quê hương thứ hai và mỗi khi có ai hỏi "Ông từ đâu đến?", ông không ngại ngần trả lời: "Tôi đến từ Việt Nam".
Việt Nam có từ trong tôi rất lâu
Ông là Guillaume Chantry, điều phối viên khu vực Đông Nam Á của Dự án phòng chống thiệt hại về nhà ở do bão gây ra ở miền Trung Việt Nam (viết tắt là DW). DW chính là dự án được Quỹ Xây dựng nhà ở xã hội (BSHF), dưới sự bảo trợ của Chương trình định cư Liên Hiệp Quốc (UN-Habitat), trao tặng Giải thưởng quốc tế về nhà ở cho người nghèo năm 2008, nhân Ngày quốc tế về nhà ở 6.10, tại Luanda, Angola.
Guillaume kể: "Đất nước Việt Nam đã có trong tôi từ thời chiến tranh. Thời trai trẻ, tôi cùng nhiều bạn trẻ yêu chuộng hòa bình khác của Pháp từng xuống đường biểu tình đòi Mỹ chấm dứt chiến tranh tại Việt Nam, nhiều lần biểu tình bị cảnh sát bắt. Sau cơn bão số 8 năm 1985, được tổ chức UNDP giới thiệu, tôi liền đến Việt Nam. Dự án thực hiện trong khoảng thời gian từ 1989-1992 thì kết thúc, sau đó tôi được cử sang Lào. Mãi cho đến cơn lũ lịch sử năm 1999, gây thiệt nặng nề cho người dân Thừa Thiên - Huế, tôi mới quay trở lại Việt Nam để tiếp tục dự án. Suốt hơn 13 năm ở Huế, bây giờ đến các quốc gia khác, có người hỏi "Ông từ đâu đến?", tôi liền trả lời: "Tôi đến từ Việt Nam". Bởi Việt Nam gần như là quê hương thứ hai của tôi. Ở Huế tôi thấy như ở nhà. Huế là thành phố rất đẹp, yên tĩnh và có rất nhiều nét tương đồng với văn hóa, kiến trúc Pháp".
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| Vợ chồng ông Trần Láo, ở xã Lộc Trì, H.Phú Lộc với niềm vui có ngôi nhà mới từ dự án DW - Ảnh do DW cung cấp | Guillaume là một kỹ sư xây dựng, từng làm việc trong các công ty chuyên về xây dựng cầu, đường. Sau khi nghỉ việc, ông nghĩ mình nên đem kiến thức, kinh nghiệm và kỹ thuật xây dựng để phổ biến cho nhiều người dân nghèo còn thiếu hiểu biết trên thế giới, nên quyết định vào làm việc cho DWF, một tổ chức phi chính phủ chuyên giúp đỡ người dân nghèo các nước đang phát triển ở châu Phi, châu Mỹ và châu Á, trong việc khắc phục nhà ở để phòng chống và giảm nhẹ thiên tai. Tại Huế, văn phòng của dự án DW là một ngôi nhà vườn nằm sâu trong con hẻm nhỏ số 91/44A Phan Đình Phùng. Đây cũng là nơi Guillaume đã gắn bó hơn 13 năm qua. Chính sự gắn bó sâu sắc và đầy tình cảm đó mà những người dân nghèo ở các địa phương hưởng thụ dự án, mỗi lần thấy Guillaume đều gọi bằng cái tên trìu mến "ông Tây chống bão".
Nguyện gắn bó với dân nghèo miền Trung
Từ năm 2004-2008, được cộng đồng châu Âu (EU) tài trợ, DW mở rộng quy mô ở 16 xã tại Thừa Thiên - Huế, xây dựng mới 450 ngôi nhà an toàn chống bão cho các hộ nghèo; hỗ trợ gia cố 950 nhà ở khác và xây dựng 65 công trình công cộng vừa và nhỏ như trường mẫu giáo, trạm y tế, chợ...
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DW được triển khai giai đoạn đầu (1989-1992) tại 3 địa phương: H.Quảng Trạch (Quảng Bình), Hải Lâm (H.Hải Lăng, Quảng Trị) và Lộc Điền (H.Phú Lộc, Thừa Thiên - Huế), chủ yếu tập trung nâng cao nhận thức cộng đồng và tập huấn kỹ thuật xây dựng nhà an toàn chống bão. Từ năm 1999-2000, được sự tài trợ của CIDA và FAVC, thông qua Hiệp hội Alternatives (Canada), dự án tiếp tục được triển khai ở tỉnh Thừa Thiên - Huế, tập trung chủ yếu vào việc nâng cao năng lực phòng chống bão cho người dân địa phương và chuyển giao kỹ thuật gia cố nhà ở. Từ tháng 4.2003, với sự tài trợ của ECHO, DW tiếp tục được triển khai với nhiệm vụ khuyến khích và hỗ trợ các hộ gia đình khắc phục tính yếu kém của nhà ở. Từ năm 2004 - 2008, được cộng đồng châu Âu (EU) tài trợ, DW mở rộng quy mô ở 16 xã tại Thừa Thiên - Huế.
Song song với DW, trong hai năm 2007-2008, được tổ chức ECHO tài trợ, DWF cũng tổ chức thêm hai dự án: Cứu trợ khẩn cấp nạn nhân bão số 6 năm 2006 tại 5 xã của H.Phú Lộc và Dự án phục hồi sinh kế sau các đợt lũ năm 2007 và rét đậm đầu năm 2008 tại 9 xã của 3 huyện Quảng Điền, Phong Điền và Hương Trà. |
| Tất cả những ngôi nhà trên đều tuân thủ 10 nguyên tắc xây dựng nhà an toàn chống bão do DW nghiên cứu, đúc kết và áp dụng, gồm: 1/ Chọn địa điểm thích hợp để tránh lực tác động của gió; 2/ Xây dựng nhà ở đơn giản để tránh áp lực âm; 3/ Xây dựng mái nghiêng với một góc 30 - 45 độ để tránh khỏi bị tốc mái; 4/ Mái hiên nên tách rời phần nhà chính; 5/ Đảm bảo rằng các bộ phận: nền móng, tường, kết cấu mái và kết cấu bao che đều được liên kết và neo giữ chắc với nhau; 6/ Gia cường hệ tam giác ngang và đứng (thang chống chéo) của khung sườn; 7/ Đảm bảo các tấm lợp mái được giữ chặt vào cấu trúc mái để tránh khỏi bị gió tốc; 8/ Kích thước các lỗ cửa ở các tường đối diện phải như nhau; 9/ Cửa đi, cửa sổ phải khít, đủ then, chốt để khóa, giằng được; 10/ Trồng cây xung quanh nhà để chắn gió.
Guillaume cho biết, bộ quy tắc này được ông thai nghén từ năm 1985, khi đang thực hiện xây dựng một ngôi trường ở Dominica. Đến Việt Nam, từ thực tế, đặc thù cũng như truyền thống xây dựng nhà của người Việt, ông cùng những đồng nghiệp tại Viện Thiết kế xây dựng tỉnh Thừa Thiên - Huế nghiên cứu để đưa ra bộ quy tắc xây dựng nhà an toàn chống bão, áp dụng hiệu quả từ đó đến nay. Chính bộ nguyên tắc này đã đem lại hiệu quả cho dự án và được BSHF trao giải thưởng. Hơn thế, gần đây nhiều tổ chức có dự án giúp đỡ Myanmar khắc phục hậu quả cơn bão Nagis làm hàng vạn người chết và mất tích hồi tháng 5.2008, cũng tìm đến DW để học hỏi kinh nghiệm. Hiện DW đã cử người sang Myanmar chia sẻ kinh nghiệm cho các đồng nghiệp đang giúp đỡ người dân tại đây xây dựng nhà chống bão. Ngân hàng Thế giới cũng đang có kế hoạch thực hiện cuốn phim tài liệu về các dự án xây dựng nhà cho người nghèo trên thế giới, và đã chính thức chọn DW là mô hình điểm cho cuốn phim.
Kết thúc buổi gặp gỡ, Guillaume kể: Hồi năm 2000, DW đã triển khai làm một âu thuyền tránh bão cho ngư dân của xã Phú Đa (H.Phú Vang). Thời điểm đó, khoảng tháng hai, tháng ba, trời vẫn còn rất rét, khi ông mặc áo ấm xuống thăm công trình thì bắt gặp nhiều em bé mặc quần đùi và áo rất phong phanh. 8 năm rồi, mới đây ông trở lại Phú Đa, hình ảnh đó vẫn còn, cho thấy người dân còn rất nghèo và đối mặt với muôn vàn khó khăn. Hình ảnh đó làm ông day dứt mãi và ông đã có ý nguyện sẽ cố gắng làm nhiều việc bổ ích, thiết thực hơn nữa cho những người dân nghèo miền Trung, vùng đất thường xuyên gánh chịu thiên tai của Việt Nam.
Bùi Ngọc Long Vietnam's northern and north-central provinces have been asked to marshal all forces to facilitate a swift recovery from the floods earlier this month that caused nearly VND8 trillion (US$472 million) in losses.
"We have to mobilize all necessary resources to stabilize residents' lives and resume production," Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung told an online forum on the issue Friday, which was attended by relevant authorities and officials from 18 cities and provinces.
Hung instructed concerned ministries to continue working on sending relief, preventing diseases, providing housing to affected residents, and resuming schools, hospitals and agricultural production.
He also instructed ministry and provincial officials to improve water drainage and irrigating systems and adapt production methods in line with possible disaster conditions.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Friday reported that floods, up till Wednesday, have damaged 30,000 hectares of rice paddies, 210,000 hectares of other crops, 10,000 hectares of fruits and 40,000 hectares of fisheries, with 200,000 livestock having been swept away.
Thousands of houses are still under water and infrastructure has been seriously damaged in many areas, the ministry reported, adding that continued flooding would cause more losses with the winter cultivating season only 15 days away.
In Hanoi, 18,000 hectares were still inundated, including 26 residential areas with 8,700 households, with some areas still under 1.2 meter of water, Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Trinh Duy Hung said. The city is projected to spend VND800 billion ($47.2 million) total for relief efforts.
Many other provinces in the Red River Delta also reported that floods have seriously damaged water drainage systems and thousands of households were facing starvation.
Some provinces have requested the government to supply three months worth of rice, estimated to be around 8,400 tons, to feed households in flooded areas. The bill for recovery works is estimated to be some VND1.45 trillion ($85.6 million).
The session Friday also discussed renovating the drainage systems around the Red River Delta.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said VND2.49 trillion ($146.9 million) is needed to construct replacement and additional water drainage systems in the delta over the next two years.
Source: Government of Viet Nam
Date: 17 Nov 2008 |
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for Preventing Typhoon Damage to Housing in Central Vietnam
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