On November 19, 2024, in Vientiane, the capital of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mr. KOIZUMI Tsutomu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Ms. Martine THERER, Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme in Lao PDR, signed and exchanged notes for the Grant Aid “The Project for Strengthening Disaster Response Capacity through the Establishment of Evacuation Shelters” (grant provision of up to 615 million yen).
This is to materialize the disaster prevention cooperation with the Lao PDR that Mr. ISHIBA Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan, announced during the Japan-Laos Summit Meeting on October 11.
- In Laos, land loss and flooding occur every year in the Mekong River and its tributaries, and in recent years, there are concerns that these disasters may become more severe and frequent due to climate change, making it an urgent task to develop facilities for disaster prevention, based on the disaster risk and vulnerability of each region.
- The project will establish evacuation shelters in three provinces in central and southern Laos (Khammouane, Salavan and Champasak), which are at high risk of flooding and other disasters, with consideration for the convenience of vulnerable groups such as women, children and people with disabilities, and will develop maintenance plans of those shelters and conduct evacuation drills. This is expected to contribute to ensuring the safety of the population in the event of a disaster and to fostering disaster awareness, thereby strengthening the country's disaster response capacity.
(Reference) Basic Data on the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
The country covers 240,000 square kilometers (about the same size as Japan's main island of Honshu) with a population of approximately 7.63 million people and, its gross national income (GNI) per capita is US$2,120 (2023, World Bank).