The Community Foundation for Natural Disaster Prevention held a ceremony in Da Nang on Thursday to celebrate its 15^th birthday (2008 - 2023) with the theme "Connecting community strength, joining hands to prevent natural disasters".

Former leaders of Party and State, leaders of ministries and central branches, and Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang (first left) attended the ceremony. Photo: LE HUNG

In his remarks at the ceremony, municipal Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang emphasised that the ceremony was a deeply meaningful activity to review the performance of the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention over the past 15 years.

At the same time, it provided the good opportunity to express gratitude, connect compassionate hearts, share, and jointly promote the strength of the community in responding to natural disasters and climate change.

According to Mr. Quang, in recent years, climate change in Viet Nam has become more unpredictable and complicated than forecast. This is demonstrated through unusual manifestations of temperature, rainfall, sea level rise and other extreme weather phenomena.

Therefore, responding to climate change requires the drastic action of the entire political system from the central to the grassroots, with the companionship and cooperation of domestic and foreign organisations, businesses and people with strong enough and highly feasible response solutions. That is also the purpose of the establishment of the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention, formerly known as the Central Region Natural Disaster Prevention Support Fund.

After 15 years of establishment and development, the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention has been bringing remarkable results to many provinces and cities across the country.

Particularly in Da Nang, since 2009, many projects to strengthen natural disaster prevention and control capacity have been carried out in the city by the Fund. Included are 7 community works to prevent natural disasters, 20 automatic rain gauge stations, 3 automatic flood warning stations, 12 drowning prevention swimming pools, and emergency support and relief activities for people and pupils when natural disasters occur.

Secretary Nguyen Van Quang speaking at the ceremony

According to the city Party chief, Da Nang is located in the tropical monsoon climate zone, so it often faces storms and tropical depressions. At the same time, it is the downstream area of the Vu Gia - Thu Bon river system, often causing flooding in the midlands and coastal plains.

According to statistical data from 1998 to present, the city has been affected by 41 storms, 16 tropical depressions and 58 floods, killing 223 people, injuring 226 people, and 175 boats sunk. Also, infrastructure and agriculture were heavily destroyed. Total damage is estimated to be more than VND10,000 billion.

In addition, the city is currently at risk of facing a number of other dangerous types of natural disasters such as landslides and massive flooding in urban areas.

With its rich experience in natural disaster prevention and control, especially in the face of unusual rains and storms with increasing intensity, the city has implemented the project on building Da Nang into a safe city from natural disasters in the 2022-2030 period with many drastic, radical and proactive solutions in response to climate change with the goal of protecting people's property and lives.

Secretary Quang took the opportunity to ask the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention to well implement programmes and projects related to climate change response and natural disaster prevention.

At the same time, it is recommended that the Fund further promote its role as a bridge to "accompany and share" with localities, thereby working together towards a safe, friendly and sustainable living environment in the future.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan (center) presenting the Ministry's Certificate of Merit to the Community Fund for Natural Disaster Prevention. Photo: LE HUNG

As of 2023, the Fund has raised more than VND600 billion from more than 300 sponsors who are domestic and foreign individuals and businesses. The Fund's operational goals are always humane, community-oriented, and community-serving, with a focus on vulnerable groups in natural disasters such as children, women, ethnic minorities, and poor people.

As a result, 88 classrooms and schools, 20 healthcare stations, and 14 community houses across the country have been built by the Fund.

Since 2018, the Fund has raised over VND90 billion to construct 142 safe swimming pools in schools.

Also, more than VND27 billion in scholarships have been given to more than 1,000 poor students.

In addition, 843 automatic rain gauge stations and 16 automatic flood warning towers have been installed in the city at a total cost of VND34.6 billion which comes from the Fund. The project is providing real-time rain monitoring data and flood warnings for 48 provinces/cities, effectively serving natural disaster forecasting and integrating digital data, and warning people of natural disasters through smart urban applications.

Also at the ceremony, the Community Foundation for Natural Disaster Prevention was honoured with Certificates of Merit from the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in recognition of its great contributions to raising awareness and capacity to self-prevent natural disasters in localities throughout the country.

​Reporting by LE HUNG - Translating by M.DUNG