Vietnam launches National Climate Change Strategy

Nguyen Minh Quang, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment announced the National Climate Change Strategy in Vietnam, in a ceremony in Hanoi yesterday.

 

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The National Climate Change Strategy, approved by the Prime Minister, will enable Vietnam to develop a constructive community-based model that can be replicated effectively and strategically to overcome the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels.

Vietnam is one of the countries particularly vulnerable to climate change and the Mekong Delta is among three deltas in the world that will be the most affected by rising sea levels.

If sea levels rise by one metre, about 39 per cent of the Mekong Delta area, 10 per cent of the Red River Delta area, 2.5 per cent of the coastal provinces, and over 20 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City will be flooded.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will organise an investment conference and call on foreign businesses to invest in infrastructure projects to help reduce the damaging impact of climate change in Vietnam.

By A.Thu

Source: SGGP

Dr. Ho Long Phi: "Flooded Ho Chi Minh city control strategy: reducing damage rather than risk reduction"

According to Dr. Ho Long Phi, Deputy Executive Director of the Center Cityprogram to prevent flooding, the city is implementing a number of the overall project tosolve the city area to prevent flooding. These include a number of projects such asdrainage Master Plan JICA 2001, tidal control project in 2008, City Plan to 2025 space, and projects sea dike Go Cong - Vung Tau ..

These projects have been approved by the Prime Minister and development, to upgrade the drainage system, local control tide ...contribute to solving the area to prevent flooding the city and surrounding areas. .

However, according to Dr. Ho Long Phi, the current project to prevent flooding of the city is being made simultaneously but asynchronously, even mutual negation. Dr. Ho Long Phi emphasized, for the effects of climate change today, risk levels exceed the design capacity of the great works very hard to predict exactly the situation in future.Therefore, the need here that we have to do is not reduce risk as would normally do,which is to minimize damage if problems occur.

Dr. Ho Long Phi is a presentation at the seminar. Photo: Hieu Thuong

Please introduce you to read the full discussion paper "Strategies for integrated flood Management for the City: Requirements and urgency" of Dr. Ho Long Phi. This paper was Dr. Ho Long Phi presented in the Conference Report on the Mid-term Management Project flooded city area, to prevent flooding the city center held the morning of 07/03/2012. At the Seminar, there were Mr. Hoang Van Thang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the experts from the World Association of Water Resources, the project consultants and Dutch scientists, and leading specialists of Vietnam.

02 Integrated Flood and Inundation Management Strategies for HCMC Mar 2012_ HLP

By HIEU THUONG

Scores of dead fish found floating on Cai Tau River

Scores of dead fish were found floating on the Cai Tau River for the last two days, in the same area where a fortnight back huge numbers of fish had died, presumably from contamination of wastewater leak from the nearby Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau.

Almost all river animal species died in the Rach Dan Canal (Photo: SGGP)

Residents from Khanh An Commune of U Minh District living along Rach Dan Canal, which is fed by the same river, said that not only fish but also shrimps and crabs died in vast numbers.

According to local residents, this is the third instance that scores of dead fish have surfaced on the Cai Tau River; the first time was about a fortnight before Tet Lunar New year and the second on February 8.

The Department of Environment Protection in Ca Mau Province on February 20 sent officials to survey the area and collect river water samples for testing, to clarify the reasons behind these recurring phenomena.

On February 2, while the Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant was conducting trial operations, technical problems occurred in the wastewater treatment system, which caused leak of wastewater into the Cai Tau River. The plant then had to temporarily halt operations.

Organisations analysing the river water found ammonia content in samples that were 15 times above permissible limits, resulting in fish to die in the water.

The plant resumed operations on Tuesday after repair works were done.

Thousands of households living along the banks of the 44 kilometre stretch of the Cai Tau River depend on fish from the river as a sole means of livelihood.

By Xuan Ha - SGGP