Committee calls for flood preparations

The National Steering Committee for Flood Control and Prevention and the National Committee for Search and Rescue yesterday sent an urgent official note to northern and northeastern provinces requesting preparations to cope with possible floods and landslides.

The official note said the ministries of national defence, public security, transport, industry and trade, and agriculture must implement prevention measures to prepare for extreme weather.

It also called on local authorities to warn residents living close to lakes, rivers and in low areas so that they can prevent losses and damage.

The relevant agencies were also asked to have skilled personnel on hand to control traffic and rescue those in badly-flooded areas.

The Central Meteorological Forecasting Centre's forecasts have predicted heavy rain would appear in the northern areas of the country from August 18 until August 21.

It has also warned of possible flooding in the Hong - Thai Binh River system during that time.

Flooding and landslides are likely to occur in the Cao Bang, Lang Son, Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Son La and Bac Kan provinces.

Quang Binh to build houses for the poor

The central province of Quang Binh has begun a charity campaign aiming to build 197 houses at a total cost of VND5.6 billion (US$266,000) for low-income and disaster-hit households in 2014.

The first phase, to be conducted from now until November, will include 130 houses, and the second phase will start in early September.

Construction costs will be mainly funded by the Central Committee of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front.

The work is expected to help improve local living conditions and promote production.

Tourist's body found in Co To Island

Local rescue teams yesterday found the body of a 20-year-old female tourist who drowned while swimming yesterday morning off the coast of Co To Island in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh.

The tourist, Tran Thi Yen, was an employee at the Samsung Complex in Thai Nguyen Province, and was enjoying her holiday with colleagues on Van Chay Beach.

The People's Committee of the island district has donated VND5 million (US$236) to the victim's family.

Police seize drug haul in Hai Phong

The police captured three drug traffickers and seized 13 kilograms of methamphetamine on Sunday in So Dau Ward, Hong Bang District, in the northern Hai Phong City.

The police also seized more than VND20 million (US$952), eight handsets and two motorbikes from them.

The action taken was part of the investigation by the Hai Phong police and the Anti-drug Police Department under Viet Nam Coast Guard into drug trafficking in the area between the northern Lang Son Province and Quang Ninh Province, and the city.

Delta takes action to protect people, crops

Upstream provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta have built dykes and flood-proof residential clusters to protect crops and ensure the safety of residents as the annual flooding season has produced higher than normal water levels.

Dong Thap and An Giang, the two hardest-hit provinces in the flooding season, are now completing the construction of flood-proof residential clusters.

The work is part of a national programme to build flood-proof residential clusters in the Delta.

Dinh Xuan Hoang, deputy director of the Dong Thap's Department of Construction, said the province had finished building 50 of 53 flood-proof residential clusters in the second phase of the programme.

The three remaining flood-proof residential clusters would be completed next month, he said.

Of the province's 14,231 families in flood-prone areas, 7,566 families have moved to live in flood-proof residential clusters.

In addition, Dong Thap is going to complete an additional seven flood-proof residential clusters in erosion-prone areas.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy chairman of the Dong Thap People's Committee, said his committee had instructed localities to relocate households in these areas to safer ground.

Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang provinces as well as Can Tho City have upgraded dykes to protect crops and have established more than 600 rescue groups to monitor dangerous sites and river intersections.

The provinces and Can Tho have set up hundreds of safe sites for children to stay during the day and have arranged for boats to take them to school.

They have also instructed farmers to plant this year's third rice crop in zoned areas.

Nguyen Van Cong, director of the Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the farmers had planted rice on this zoned area but some had planted about 600 ha of paddy in unzoned areas.

Dong Thap's downstream areas had finished consolidating dykes to protect 30,000ha of fruits, he said.

On August 10, floodwaters caused a break of more than 20 meters long of a dyke in Hong Ngu District's Thuong Phuoc 1 Commune in Dong Thap.

The incident flooded 80ha of paddy and threatened another 300ha of paddy which were nearly ripe.

Nguyen Hoang Nhung, chairman of the Thuong Phuoc 1 Commune People's Committee, said local authorities had asked local soldiers and army members to help farmers harvest their flooded paddies.

This was the delta's first dyke break since the flooding season began early this month.

More Vietnamese drowning victim in Japan found

The police of Hamamatsu city, Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture, on August 17 recovered the body of Do Thi Viet Trinh, a Vietnamese woman, who was reported among the three going missing while swimming in the city’s Minami district, three days ago.

According to Hamamatsu police, the municipal rescue forces found 21-year-old Trinh’s body about 100 metres from the coast of Nakatajima town, Minami district.

Trinh and six other Vietnamese students and trainees were swept away by high waves while swimming in a forbidden sea area in the coastal city, the police said.

Earlier, 23-year-old male trainee Nguyen Ba Tuong was found dead from serious injuries when washed ashore. Japanese search forces found his body 500 meters away from the area where he had bathed.

The local authorities and police are searching for Bui Ngoc Diep – the remaining missing person in the surrounding area.

Joint efforts to bring home Vietnamese workers from Libya

The evacuation of 1,750 Vietnamese workers from Libya has almost completed with 1,379 already back to Vietnam by August 17 and all those working in strife-hit Tripoli and Bengazhi cities moved to safe areas.

While on a much smaller scale than the evacuation of 10,000 labourers from Libya in 2011, the campaign has seen the close coordination among the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), and Vietnamese embassies in Middle East and North African countries.

MoLISA has sent working teams to Libya, Egypt and Tunisia to assist labour export companies and employers and Vietnamese representative agencies in implementing measures to ensure the safety for workers and bring them home.

Eleven companies which sent workers to Libya have also worked with foreign contractors to evacuate their workers.

Taking the lead in this campaign was Vinamex Company, which immediately drew plans and set up a steering board on evacuation of workers from Libya when violence broke out. Vinamex and the employer of Vietnamese workers - Republic of Korea contractor Huyndai E&C – have closely worked together to bring the workers home using chartered planes.

Since the beginning of this month, all the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt have been mobilised for this urgent mission. To date, about 750 people have been evacuated via Cairo by both air and land.

High salinity triggers water shortage in Da Nang

Residents in seven districts of the central city have lacked clean water since last week as the salinity in Cau Do water plant –Da Nang's major water supply –reached an alarming high of 9.950mg per litre.

"Reasons include climate change, forest destruction, low rainfall and the operation of hydropower plants in the Vu Gia-Thu Bon river system covering Quang Nam and Da Nang," said Nguyen Truong Anh, director of Da Nang Water Supply company (DAWACO).

Meanwhile, Song Bung 4, A Vuong, Dak Mi 4 and Song Tranh 2 hydropower plants lacked water and An Trach dam had to close its discharge gates as the water level fell.

While the management of A Vuong hydropower plant has been working at a capacity of 60 cubic metres per second since early this month, the salinity level in Cau Do failed to decline.

"We cannot use water from Cau Do because of high salinity, while the water level at the An Trach dam is only 1.8-2m," Anh said. "So we have to operate a pumping system periodically in seven districts. But even then, some areas in the city will be out of water."

Residents should reserve water in tanks or buckets, he warned.

Salinity is a problem for Cau Do every year during the drought season, according to a DAWACO report. However, the situation has been getting worse.

In 2012, when salinity levels were high for 94 days, the pumping system at An Trach dam pumped 9 million cubic metres to deal with the problem.

However, last year DAWACO had to pump 23.4 million cubic metres as the high salinity level lasted for 185 days.

In the first six months this year, the company took 5.8 million cubic metres from An Trach dam to reduce salinity at Cau Do.

German partners help Mekong Delta tackle climate change

Representatives from the Mekong Delta German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Siemens gathered at a meeting on August 18 to discuss a project to enhance the region’s capacity to better cope with climate change.

Addressing the working session, Nguyen Phong Quang, deputy head of the Steering Committee for the Southwest Region emphasised that the Mekong Delta region has been detrimentally affected by climate change and rising sea levels with regular floods, storms and whirlwinds plaguing the region.

Quang said that the steering committee discussed the proposed project of GIZ and Siemens, adding that Mekong Delta provinces are badly in need of capital resources to implement this or any project on climate change.

Severin Peters, an GIZ expert said his agency and Siemens are two leading German companies with considerable experience in managing climate change projects.  They will initially, launch pilot projects in Can Tho, Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces.

Capital resources will be mobilised from GIZ’s sponsors such as the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The project is expected to commence sometime in late 2014 and be completed in mid-2015.

RoK businesses grant scholarships to Binh Duong students

The Republic of Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KOCHAM)’s branch in southern Binh Duong province on August 18 presented 160 scholarships to local disadvantaged students who have achieved good academic results.

The scholarships, worth 460 million VND (21,900 USD) in total, were granted to 70 senior high school students and 90 others from primary and junior high schools.

KOCHAM Binh Duong Chairman Lee Jong Hoe said over the past five years, the branch and RoK-funded firms in the province have provided more than 1.5 billion VND for social activities such as presenting 1,000 Tet gift packages and some 200 scholarships, and building four houses for policy beneficiaries.

The RoK currently ranks fourth among investors in Binh Duong with 487 projects worth over 1.8 billion USD.-

Ministry tries to increase rural rabies vaccinations

Experts called on localities to raise awareness about rabies prevention, especially in rural areas, at a conference on August 18.

Communications efforts would focus on raising the vaccination rate for dogs and cats as well as people who were bitten by dogs or cats.

"Vaccination is the only way to save the life of someone who gets rabies from a dog or cat bite," said the Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine Department deputy director Dang Quang Tuan.

Rabies killed 40 people in 20 provinces and cities during the first six months of this year, compared to 49 people in the same period last year. Vietnam still has a high rate of deaths by rabies because only 20% of animals are vaccinated, Tuan said.

The disease occurs mainly in rural areas, where people have inadequate knowledge about rabies prevention and fail to go to medical clinics for the necessary vaccine after being bitten by dogs. More than 31% of people surveyed by the department said that if bitten by a dog, there was no need to go to a clinic if the dog still appeared normal.

The prevention programme will focus on raising awareness in such communities, especially in the 10 provinces and localities with the most rabies cases.

The country currently has around 6 million dogs, but management of them is difficult, especially in rural areas where people let their dogs wander freely and do not vaccinate them against rabies.

Central Highlands consolidates public healthcare system

The Central Highlands strives to set up medical stations in all communes by 2015 as part of effort to reinforce its public healthcare system, heard an August 18 workshop in Dak Lak province.

To do so, participants suggested priority to personnel training in disadvantaged areas, and all possible perks for medical workers at the grassroots, including health insurance staff.

They also stressed the need to equip preventive medicine centres with necessary equipment and technologies, ensuring that they meet the national standard by 2015.

Over the past three years, the region has made remarkable achievements in public healthcare services and disease prevention, with nearly 63% of its population covered by health insurance.

More than 18,300 are working for the healthcare sector, up 3.5 times from 2001, with midwives present in all communes and doctors serving in over 79% of communes and townships.

Up to 66.25% of communes and precincts have met national healthcare standards, helping control the outbreaks of malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis, and cholera.

Ethnic minorities and the poor have received free health checkups and treatment. The expanded immunisation campaign has come a long way and reached over 95% of local population for many years.

Can Tho upgrades irrigation system

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has upgraded 132 dams and completed the dredging of canals in the districts of Vinh Thanh, Co Do, and Thoi Lai.

The sullage pit system in the districts of Phong Dien, O Mon, Thot Not and Cai Rang have been connected to ensure safety for 62,000ha of paddy and 14,000ha of fruit trees.

According to the city's Centre Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the water levels of the Mekong River will rise to 1.92-1.95m in the last two weeks of August and the first days of September.

This is at the third and highest alarm level, which denotes that it threatens agricultural production and people's livelihoods.

Vietnam, Laos ink MoU for managing public records

Vietnam and the Laos signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on August 18 for a 2015 cooperative project aiming to promote efficiency in the management of public records and archives.

Under the MoU, the Vietnam State Records Management and Archive Department has agreed to help train Lao archivists and provide non-refundable aid for the construction of a records centre for Lao’s national archives.

The agreement contains provisions for the two sides to exchange historical documents, organize seminars and conferences, and work collectively to increase their prestige within the regional and international archive community.

Vietnam helps Cambodian military construct printing house

The Vietnam and Cambodian Ministries of Defence on August 18 held a ground breaking ceremony in Phnom Penh to kick off construction of a printing house specialising in military maps.

The Vietnam Ministry of Defence donated US$200,000 to help build the two storey facility, spanning an area of 250 square metres, scheduled for completion within six months.

“The project is a vivid demonstration of the special solidarity and closeness of the two nations over the past time,” said Cambodian General Tea Chomroeun.

Experts share water management experience

Experts and policy makers from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and the University of Oregon gathered at a seminar in Hanoi on August 18 discussing sustainable development of the Mekong River basin.

Speaking at the seminar, MoST Deputy Minister Tran Viet Thanh emphasised that coping with climate change in the lower Mekong basin – Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia – is critically important.

“To ensure prosperity for all people living in the lower Mekong Basin, a sustainable water management approach is needed,” Thanh said.

Thanh said IT applications have greatly assisted in more effectively and efficiently managing the shared water resources and with climate change issues.

Dr Jennifer Schopf from Indiana University in turn stressed the importance of organising more seminars gathering leading scientists, IT experts and engineers to launch new projects.

Ninh Thuan ethnic minority residents to be allocated land

Ethnic minority people in the south-central coastal province of Ninh Thuan will be given support to access production land, said vice chairman of the provincial Committee for Ethnic Affairs Le Thanh Hung.

The province is home to about 580,000 people, 22 per cent of whom belong to ethnic minority groups. By the end of last year, about 3,033 ethnic households said they lacked production land, including 1,237 in the mountainous district of Bac Ai alone.

Floods and land acquisition for the construction of reservoirs had damaged agricultural land, Hung said.

After 1975, people planted crops on virgin soil and then left for other areas. The land they planted was then allocated to forestry plants.

"It is difficult to identify the areas reclaimed by people because now they are managed by State-owned forestry plants," Hung said.

If such land was not classified as special-use forest, it should be given to people, he said, adding that if local authorities could not provide land for people to cultivate, they would help them shift to other jobs or find work overseas.

Authorities in Phuoc Thang, Phuoc Thanh, Phuoc Hoa and Phuoc Tien communes in Bac Ai District planned to reallocate forestry land to people who lacked space to grow crops.

In Ninh Son district's Lam Son commune, 277 households that have spent years repurposing forest soil for growing crops will be granted land-use right certificates. In Luong Son Commune of the same district, local authorities plan to hand over land from Hon Ba and Hon Vang forestry plants to 75 households.

Besides local support, poor households from ethnic minority groups in disadvantaged areas will receive VND15 million (US$714) each from the State budget and access to preferential loans up to VND15 million ($714) from the Bank of Social Policies to reclaim and improve production land.

Vietnam, Laos discuss management of guest labourers

The labour ministries of Vietnam and Laos discussed measures to better manage and support Vietnamese guest labourers in the neighbouring country at a conference held on August 18 in the central province of Nghe An, Nhan Dan newspaper reported.

The daily quoted unofficial statistics as putting the number of Vietnamese guest workers in Laos at an estimated 13,500, who are employed at cooperation investment projects between the two countries’ agencies or localities, and Vietnamese contractors. Most of them are skilled workers.

With the strong growth of Vietnamese investment in Laos, the number of guest workers in the country is expected to increase to at least 20,000 next year.

Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thanh Hoa said Vietnam will continue to assist Laos in training skilled labourers, thus improving the quality of its human resources.-

Vietnam to help train Lao archivists

Vietnam will continue to help train archivists for the Lao side, as part of an MoU on cooperation for 2015 between the State Records and Archives Department of Vietnam and Laos’ National Archives Department.

The document was inked on August 18 in Vientiane.

Under the agreement, the two sides will continue working with relevant agencies on a project to build a national archives insurance centre in Luang Prabang, Laos using the Vietnamese Government’s annual aid to Laos, with the aim of submitting the project to the two Governments.

They will also ask for the two governments’ permission for a plan on cooperation in building and sharing lists of archived history-related documents.

Both pledged to continue creating favourable conditions for their experts and officials to exchange professional skills and information, and participate in seminars and symposiums in order to improve their capacity.

Residents’ satisfaction about most local public services in Ho Chi Minh City was rated as above average, according to results of a recent survey by the municipal People’s Committee.

The average satisfaction mark for eight groups of public services in the survey ranged from +0.21 to +0.77 compared to the base level of 0.

The service that gains the highest mark is preschool education while the lowest is given to the individual income tax collection.

Meanwhile, the licensing of land use right and property ownership got the highest dissatisfaction rate with 11.9 percent of those questioned said they were not pleased with the service. It is followed by the healthcare service which disappointed 7.5 percent of the surveyed households.

When it comes to businesses’ satisfaction, the water supply service scored the highest mark of +0.72 while tax declaration service saw the lowest, +0.33.

Business licensing is the worst performing one with 13.9 percent of surveyed enterprises complaining about its quality.

Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Hua Ngoc Thuan said the announcement of the results will help relevant State agencies review their performance so as to devise effective measures to improve the quality of their services.

IT useful for Mekong water resources management

The application of information technology is important to increasing cooperation in managing, protecting and developing water resources in the Lower Mekong River, especially in the context of climate change, experts said at a workshop held in Hanoi on August 18.

IT technology will assist the sharing, use and protection of water resources in a scientific manner, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Viet Thanh said, noting that all countries in the Mekong basin have been connected to the Trans-Eurasia Information Network TEIN4.

The workshop under the theme of IT infrastructure and water resources in the Lower Mekong basin attracted the participation of IT experts who want to create new linkages in the region. Participants also talked about water resources studies and policies that have impact on scientific research and IT infrastructure.

Director of International Networking at the US Indiana University Jennifer Schopf highlighted the significance of the event in enhancing regional capacity to address the impact of climate change.

Dung Quat Port begins Ebola checks

The Preventive Medicine Centre at the central coastal province of Quang Ngai on August 18 began conducting health checks on crews from foreign ships at Dung Quat Port in efforts to prevent Ebola virus from entering the country.

The online Nhan Dan newspaper quoted Nguyen Van Luu, chief of the migration section under the provincial Border Guard Command as saying that an average 12-15 foreign ships anchor at Dung Quat every month.

“Even when no case of Ebola infection has been detected so far on foreign ships, the quarantine work has been tightened to prevent the virus from entering the country,” Luu said.

He added that if any crew member on foreign ships is found to carry the virus, the border guard force will monitor the ship while the patient will be carried to qualified local medical facilities for treatment, in line with the plan outlined by relevant agencies in the province.

On the morning of August 18, 23 crew members on a ship from Hong Kong (China) were the first to undergo the check in the form of body temperature monitor at the port.

Vietnam has intensified quarantine at its border gates in an effort to prevent the disease. As from August 15, people from West African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak have been required to sign a medical declaration before entering Vietnam.

Can Tho city records the lowest malnutrition rate among under-five children in the Mekong Delta, at 12.2 percent, according to the municipal Health Department.

The figure is also much lower than the national rate of 15.3 percent.

The result is attributable to strong socio-economic development in the city, which has helped raise locals’ living standards as well as reduce the rate of poor households from 3.9 percent to 2.9 percent.

Additionally, priority was given to creating favourable conditions for women to find jobs and improve household economy.

According to the department’s Director Bui Thi Le Phi, the city has synchronously implemented activities guiding mothers on how to feed their children scientifically, and effectively conducted vaccination campaigns against six kinds of infectious diseases on under-5 children. Pregnant women have been provided with medical check-ups, vitamin A and tetanus injections.

The department also gives priority to reducing the number of cases related to pneumonia and diarrhea in children as the two diseases can cause malnutrition.

The health sector recently provided consultations for nearly 800 Khmer ethnic women on the importance of breastfeeding and micronutrients in food portion, encouraging them to develop agricultural production for more food for children.-

Vietnam starts building INDC report

A workshop was held in Hanoi on August 18 to launch the process of building Vietnam’s report on intended nationally-determined contributions (INDC) to mitigating climate change.

Co-organised by the Ministry of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the United Nations Development Programme and Germany’s development cooperation organization (GIZ), the event brought together a crowd of representatives from many ministries, sectors and institutions.

In his opening speech, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said as there were many different views on IDNC during negotiation sessions on climate change at the 19 th Session the Conference of the Parties to the UN Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 19), there is no available guidance on building the report.

However, there is not much time until convention participating countries have to submit their INDC, so the country should quickly develop its own report, which should be conducted transparently with the involvement of all related parties, including the country’s international development partners, Ha stressed.

Participants gave their opinions on the contents and form of Vietnam’s INDC, including contributions related to climate change adaptation and relief, the country’s ability to receiving and transferring technology in the field, and coordination mechanisms between relevant ministries, sectors and organisations in making the report.

In recent years, the Government has issued many policies on responding to climate change in Vietnam and the country has also accumulated many valuable experiences in deploying multilateral and bilateral cooperation mechanisms on adapting to reduce green house emission. These are considered as important basis for setting up the INDC report.

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