Australia, ADB help VN tackle climate change
VGP – The Government of Australia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently committed to a donation of US $1.3 million for Việt Nam to cope with negative impacts of climate change in the Mekong Delta.
A notice from
ADB was quoted as saying that the aid will be spent on different projects to
assess all threats of climate change in the region and figure out solutions to
adapt to sea level rise and severe inundation.
Illustration
photo
Among US
$1.3 million, the Government of Australia will supply US $800,000 and the ADB offers
the remaining US $500,000. The Vietnamese Government will provide the
counterpart funding of US $330,000 for the project.
ADB predicts
that Việt Nam would be hit hard by climate change and the Mekong Delta, the country’s
major granary, would be the most vulnerable region.
Initial
researches show that around 31% of agro-fishery land areas in the region is
supposed to be submerged when the sea level rises one meter in 2100. Then, severe
impacts daily life of about 4.8 million people including 1.5 million poor residents.
In fact,
there has been no comprehensive research on possible impacts of climate change
in the Mekong Delta.
The
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was entrusted to implement the
project from January 2010 to April 2011./.
