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Pointing to the results of the project, he stressed: "With knowledge and skills provided by the project staff, I am confident that people in the high risk areas will effectively respond to emergency situations in the coming time."

In Trung Kien hamlet in Trieu Thuong commune of Trieu Phong district, we saw a very effective method of dealing with floods. All families built their houses with floors much higher than the roads. Mr Dang Thuong, 78, said: "It has been our long tradition that we upgrade house foundations through different generations in order to have a safe shelter in emergency cases."

These communes have made anti-disaster plans at different levels from the administration to households, addressing prevention and preparedness, response and rehabilitation. Both administration and households are advised to make their own plans on protection of agricultural production and infrastructure, evacuation and search and rescue.

 

The plan on food security provides strategies such as crop rotation, early harvest, and emergency preparations such as moving crops to higher area. The plan to safeguard infrastructure included measures for electricity supply and canals along with other key infrastructure. The evacuation and search and rescue plan identifies sites for the evacuation of groups of households.

The project has also provided the above-mentioned districts with leaflets, booklets, posters, and instruments for first and emergency aid and rescue work. Systems of loudspeakers have been installed in the localities to help raise inhabitants’ awareness of disaster prevention and control. Mr Le Van Tinh from Nhan Bieu 1 hamlet praised the installation of loudspeakers which helped local people a lot during the recent floods. He said: "We received necessary information on the spreading of the flood in order to prepare for the evacuation of property and family members."

In Dong Bao hamlet, we were introduced with a detailed plan on evacuation. The villagers made a disaster map, marking the most vulnerable households together with the locations and high buildings for which people should move to in emergency cases.

We also visited the Trieu Trach Junior School in Trieu Son commune of Trieu Phong district where training courses were provided to students. "I’ve learnt interesting things about what I should do if a disaster happens," Quang Tuan, a student said adding that "now all of my class mates know how much damage a disaster can do to people, animals and property, so we are learning how to live with or prevent natural disasters."

WV's Relief &Disaster Mitigation Officer, Nguyen Van Phuoc, said that after their lessons, each pupil will help spread the information they learn at school to their families, and this knowledge will stay with the children their whole lives. Educating kids on disaster prevention is the shortest and most effective way to spread this information to families.

There could be many more impressive outcomes of the project, however, we have found the answer why people are making all efforts to collect the knowledge and skills against natural disaster.

The success of the project was proved through the comments of just two participants in the project. Ms Mui, a member of the rescue team in Trieu Son commune of Trieu Phong district said: "I should say that I now feel like a professional in helping others get knowledge and skills to deal with natural disasters." Meanwhile Mr Nien from Tan Phuc commune in Lang Chanh district stressed: "Thanks to the project's training activities, I am fully aware of what to do to effectively prevent and control floods and forest fires."

Promote the project's effect

One of the most significant achievement of the project is the 4 on-the-spot policy including command, manpower, material and logistics initiated by the project. It helps reduce the damage caused by disasters to a minimum level. People in the targeted communes are now aware of the combined strength to overcome failures of flood and storm protection works and to effectively implement search and rescue activities.

 

Local administration and project staff said that practices on disaster preparedness and mitigation capacity would be replicated in a more efficient and successful manner.

This project shows that communities can and are willing to take an active role in preparing themselves. However, education and training should be promoted to raise public awareness of disasters and disaster management and more people in other areas will be provided with the same knowledge and skills to better protect themselves.

Climate change is a very real threat to Vietnam’s continued socio-economic development. Increasingly erratic and variable rainfall, higher temperatures, more intense

extreme weather events like typhoons, droughts and heavy rainfall causing floods, and the rising seawater level will all have a significant impact across sectors, regions, and income groups, and particularly on livelihood security of the poorest rural people.

Therefore, disaster preparedness and mitigation is a task of the entire society which requires active participation of communities. People in Trieu Phong and Lang Chanh have gained useful knowledge and skills to prevent and control natural disasters. They have also received a good news released by the project staff that the second phase will be launched to further support them.

The project is having an all-round positive effect. "It’s obvious that people’s knowledge on disaster prevention in the targeted areas has greatly improved after training courses. We hope that World Vision will extend this kind of support to other areas," said Mr Luong Van Quyen, chief of Cay hamlet in Tri Nang commune in Lang Chang district.

Coping With Natural Disasters —- continued