Australia-aided disaster mitigation project praised

Hanoi Times - The Australian-financed project to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters in central Quang Ngai province has won praise for the effective implementation.

The project won the 2007 engineering award from the Australian Institute of Engineers Queensland Division for its excellence and creativeness in terms of techniques and environmental solutions.

It then received an award for community and urban development from the Australian Technical Consultants Association.

The Australian Government decided to finance the project to lessen the impact of natural disaster in central Quang Ngai province after learning about the province’s heavy toll in lives and property in the 1999 flood season.

It granted 12.55 million AUD to aid the implementation of the project between 2003 and 2005 and then provided an additional 1.3 million AUD for an extension of the project from January 2006 to March 2007.

Owing to the project, Quang Ngai has had three dyke sections with a total length of 2,700 meters built along the Tra Khuc River and four estuary anti-salinity levees o­n the Tra Bong River with a total length of 10.5 km to protect 1,500 ha of farming land.

In addition, the Tinh Hoa harbor that aims to provide refuges and logistic services for 350 fishing vessels is under construction and expected to be put into service by June 30, 2008.

The project also helped the province strengthen the local community-based disaster management capacity.

First Secretary of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) Simon Cramp said the fruitions produced by the project went beyond the expectations of the Australian and Vietnamese governments.

He added that the project won more trust and support from the community for the efforts to mitigate the impact of natural disasters.