21/03/2008
The workshop had two aims: to explore ways that poor families can be encouraged to take out loans to help them in achieving a flood and typhoon resistant house; and to explore with existing and potential lending institutions ways that sustainable and affordable loans for preventive house strengthening can be offered to poor families
On the 7th March 2008 Development Workshop France (DWF) organised a round table workshop in Hué, Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam.
At present poor families can borrow up to 3 million Dongs with no collateral from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy, but this amount does not match the costs of either strengthening an existing house, not the greater cost of building a new flood and storm resistant house.
The workshop drew on the experience of DWF over the past eight years of helping poor families in central Vietnam to strengthen their existing homes and to make sure that new homes are build to a standard that will make sure they can resistant storms and floods. The workshop has been supported by the Ford Foundation and the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). ECHO has supported DWF in Vietnam since 2003.
The participants included representatives from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy, the Vietnam Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Women’s Union, Mekong Economics Ltd, the Ford Foundation, NDM-P, DMC, the World Bank/MARD Natural Disaster Risk Management Project, GRET, CECI, World Concern, Oxfam, Plan, NAV, the People’s Committee of Thua Thien Hué Province and of ten DWF partner communes in the province, and the provincial departments of Flood and Storm Control, Construction, International Relations.
The workshop participants heard about the formal and informal sources of borrowing that families currently turn to in order to strengthen their homes, and about the formal sector options that provide by Vietnamese banks and lending institutions. Participants discussed the barriers families face and potential incentives that could be developed to encourage preventive strengthening. And with the very active participation of the Vietnamese Bank for Social Policy, the workshop examined the steps that need to be taken to develop a new Safe House loan product that is adapted to the capacity and needs of poor borrowers. This is in line with recent statements from the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control and by ex Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on the need for loans to help families build and achieve safe houses.
The conclusion is that there is an urgent need to develop a safe house loan product that is attractive and affordable to poor families in Central Vietnam, similar to the Mekong River Delta housing loans, and the participants agreed to work over the next two years to achieve this. At the same time, more immediate steps will be taken to raise awareness of the medium term advantages of borrowing to obtain a safer house compared to the costs of repeated repairs and reconstruction that follow floods and typhoons. 01/03/2008Unusual climatic developments since late last year seem to indicate that the forecasts about climate changes have come true in Vietnam.
Longer storm seasons have caused heavy human and material losses in the central region.
Unprecedented severe cold snaps have hit the north.
I traveled along central Vietnam to observe the aftermaths of a series of storms and floods that devastated the region last year.
Natural disasters are, naturally, unstoppable.
What we can do is to reduce losses to a minimum.
We can prepare ourselves to overcome their effects as soon as possible.
The worst sufferers from natural disasters are usually the underprivileged, especially in rural areas because agricultural production is hit hard.
We urgently need a national strategy to cope with natural disasters to ensure the country’s sustainable growth.
The northern and central regions seem to be feeling the impact of climate change.
How much longer can the south, especially the Mekong Delta, keep out the threat?
International scientists have forecast that the sea level may rise by up to one meter in the future.
If that is true, what will happen to Vietnam, especially the low-lying Mekong Delta? The former irrigation minister, Nguyen Canh Dinh, recently showed me the results of a research study.
It estimates that between 1.5 to 2 million hectares of land in the delta will be submerged if the sea level rises by one meter.
Furthermore, the coastal plains will sink by nearly a meter and many major cities, especially Ho Chi Minh City, will be flooded during high tides.
That sounded like a nightmare to me, imagining that our cities could become islands in future.
A submerged Mekong Delta would mean a food disaster for Vietnam since the area produces the most rice.
With sea water penetrating inland through estuaries, water would become a scarce commodity.
I met with scientists and scholars in Vinh Long Province earlier this week.
They discussed with great enthusiasm the quality of economic growth and investments.
I noticed, however, that they did not mention global climate changes, which could have profound effects on an agricultural country like Vietnam.
They may have thought that the southern region has been safe from natural disasters for centuries.
But climate change has obviously affected our northern and central regions.
If storms and floods could one day hit the unprepared south, the consequences could be many times more severe than in the other regions.
Central and local leaders and scientists must work out a long-term strategy to cope with this risk.
Our scientists are capable of researching and forecasting the impacts of climate change.
We now have greater resources to invest in building dikes and irrigation systems to hold back the sea and prevent flooding.
Government leaders at all levels must be aware of the utmost importance of having in place such a strategy.
I have read about the dike network in the Netherlands and heard some Dutch experts talk about it.
Though situated lower than sea level, this country has survived and even thrived in many areas, including agriculture.
The Mekong Delta may also be below sea level in future, so the Dutch experience will be very helpful.
I have discussed this several times on the media but authorities don’t seem to pay enough attention to climate change and possibilities of new natural disaster.
We are now in a much better position to prepare ourselves for the effects of climate change than in the past.
In 2005 we considered improving the irrigation infrastructure in the Mekong Delta, and put it in the area’s to-do list.
But we seem to have ignored it ever since.
Will climate change have to deal us heavy blows to revive our will to carry out the plan?
By Vo Van Kiet (Former Prime Minister)
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