Japan helps Vietnam improve flood prevention capacity
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The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a Grant Agreement with the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on August 10th in Hanoi to provide grant aid of up to 1.844 billion yen for the Project for Emergency Reservoir Operation and Effective Flood Management Using Water related Disaster Management Information System.
The project will construct hydrological observation facilities to monitor the water level of rivers and dams and the rainfall in the basin of the Huong River, which flows through Central Viet Nam, and will also construct a water-related disaster management information system to mitigate flood disasters in the general Huong River Basin.
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The coastal area of Central Viet Nam is often struck by typhoons, resulting in storm and landslide disasters each year. Disaster risk reduction is an important challenge from the perspective of preventing human casualties and economic loss. In particular, a heavy rainy region where flood disaster occurs frequently is the Huong River Basin of ThuaThien Hue Province, due to inappropriate water releases from dams during torrential rains.
Effective operation of three dams in the basin (BinhDien, Huong Dien and Ta Trach Dams) and precise river management during heavy rains are priorities as seen by the prime minister directive issued in 2013 for proper dam management and stronger safety measures.
The project will increase the number of hydrological observation points which monitor the water level of rivers and river flow volume in the Huong River Basin and shorten the intervals at which rainfall and water level information is disseminated from 60 to 10 minutes, thereby contributing to an improved capacity to manage dams and rivers, leading to the prevention and mitigation of water-related disasters.
On August 9th, a ceremony to sign a project on improving Hanoi’s capacity of managing water drainage works took place in the capital city. Signatories were the municipal Department of Construction, the Department of Innovation Management and Environmental Sciences of Yokohama city, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The second-stage project will be carried out from September 2017 and August 2020 with a total cost of around 60 million JPY. It will cover operation and maintenance of pilot wastewater treatment plants, mud treatment, mitigation of losses from floods in pilot areas, and organisation of seminars with the cooperation of member firms from the Yokohama water enterprises’ association.
Thanks to the support of the Japanese government over the past years, construction on a number of transport and technical infrastructure has been concluded in Hanoi, including Yen Xa wastewater treatment plant and garbage collection system, a water drainage system in To Lich river basin, among others.
