Ninh Thuan (VNA) – The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will help thecentral province of Ninh Thuan fight and adapt to natural disasters with afocus on children amid climate change.

The project, jointly launched by the UNICEF andthe General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention andControl under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at a ceremonyin Phan Rang – Thap Chap city on February 1, is being carried out from 2017 –2021.

In order to help the locality implementsuccessfully its plan on coping with natural disasters and adapting to climatechange, thus contributing to mitigate vulnerability and disaster risks amongchildren equally, UNICEF, the Ministry, the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam, andNinh Thuan have worked together to define contents in the cooperation programmebetween the locality and UNICEF.

The province has established a project managementboard and approved a plan for implementing the project during 2017-2018.

The project, once completed in 2021, is expectedto help enhance the capacity of the locality, its community, including children,to adapt to natural disasters and climate change, and ensure effective disasterrisks-integrated planning.

Le Van Binh, Vice Chairman of the provincialPeople’s Committee, who is also head of the project management board, stressed theneed for comprehensive collaboration among sectors, agencies, organisations andPeople’s Committees at different levels in implementing the project, whileintegrating it with other local projects and programmes.

He also called on the General Department ofNatural Disaster Prevention and Control to help the localitywith community-based disaster management and the inclusion of climate changeadaptation in the local socio-economic development plans.

Ninh Thuan is among the localities to benefitfrom the programme on mitigating disaster risks and enhancing resilience with afocus on children from 2017 – 2021, which has a total budget of nearly 1.5million USD, including 1.14 million USD of ODA sourced by UNICEF.

Ninh Thuan has been one of localities hardest hitby climate change in the form of prolonged drought and saline intrusion. 

The drought from 2015 to the end of 2016 in theprovince put about 54,000 locals in a shortage of food and water.

A total of 1,050 children suffered from severeacute malnutrition, while 11,000 others aged between 6 to 23 months old weredeficient in micronutrients. 

UNICEF has deployed many activities to helpthe locality deal with the situation, including providing clean water andmulti-micronutrient products and treating severe acute malnutrition for womenand children who are the most vulnerable to climate change.-VNA