HCMC – The Embassy of Belgium in Hanoi has announced that the VLIR-UOS-funded project “Building capacity for disaster management for the mountainous region of Da Bac District, Hoa Binh Province” was approved for expansion in Quang Nam Province’s Nam Tra My District.
The project will be implemented by the Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources (VIGMR) under the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Belgian partner, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in 20 months in the 2021-2022 period.
As long-standing partners in development cooperation, Belgium and Vietnam have been nurturing bilateral ties in different sectors. This project highlights the continued support of the Belgian Government to Vietnam to effectively respond to the challenges of climate change and natural disasters such as flooding and, more specifically, devastating landslides in the central region of Vietnam, such as in Quang Nam Province in October 2020.
“After offering urgent humanitarian aid to those affected in Central Vietnam, Belgium also wants to contribute to solutions for disaster management and to reduce disaster risks in the future,” said Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Paul Jansen.
The results of this project will be crucial for the agricultural sector, in which Belgium and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are in close collaboration to implement the Strategic Partnership Agreement on Agriculture signed in October 2018, Jansen added.
This project aims at going beyond the traditional scientific assessment of landslide hazards by implementing the real-time documentation of the occurrences and impacts of landslides.
“The project will help to link scientists in various fields and managers to comprehensively assess the relationship between natural and human hazards and make recommendations,” said Project Manager Nguyen Quoc Dinh from VIGMR.
In addition, it contributes to improving the understanding of the dangers of natural disasters for the people and the authorities, and aims to strengthen the proactive response to natural disasters in Nam Tra My District.
Further, the project is a stepping stone toward longer-term cooperation between the local authorities and scientists through the establishment of a local observer network to help local authorities in the decision-making process for natural disaster prevention and management.
By Le Anh
