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Viet Nam: Successful completion of ADB supported emergency assistance for flood damage rehabilitation

News Release No. 14/03

Hanoi, Viet Nam (6 August 2003) - Vice Minister Nguyen Xuan Thao of MPI and John Samy, ADB's Country Director for Viet Nam attended a workshop in Hanoi upon the successful completion of the $73 million Emergency Assistance for rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged by the natural disasters that struck Viet Nam in 2000. According to Mr. Samy, "completing a complicated project like the Emergency Assistance is a real accomplishment, particularly as it involved constructing hundreds of individual projects in four different sectors and spread out in 13 provinces over a period of two and a half years".

During 2000, the Mekong Delta in the South of Viet Nam experienced exceptional high and prolonged floods. In addition, a tropical storm hit the North Central coast in September of that year. The floods and the storm caused loss of hundreds of lives, hardship to thousands of families, major disruption of social and economic activities, and serious damage to infrastructure. Shortly after these events and following the visit of ADB's President Mr. Tadao Chino in early October 2000, the Government requested ADB assistance to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure in the nine worst affected provinces in the Mekong Delta and four coastal provinces in North Central Viet Nam. ADB responded very quickly and within less than three months approved a reallocation of $58.8 million of loan funds of ongoing projects in Viet Nam for the Emergency Assistance. According to Mr. Samy, initially delays were experienced in the identification of eligible projects and in the design of the more complex projects. Once this phase was passed, the pace of implementation picked up, reaching a peak during 2002.

The ADB Emergency Assistance covered four key sectors, i.e., education, health, transport, and water resources. In the area of education, the Assistance focused on lower secondary education and a total of 237 schools have been built. In the health sector, 57 primary health centers and 16 hospitals have been repaired, improved or replaced. In the road sector, the Assistance rehabilitated and improved about 400 km of provincial roads. Furthermore, 28 major bridges have been repaired or replaced. For the water resources sector, the Assistance rehabilitated and improved irrigation and drainage systems and flood protection dikes. The largest single project undertaken under the Assistance is the riverbank erosion protection project for Tan Chau town in the Mekong Delta. Dike rehabilitation and improvement projects in Nghe An Province and Ha Tinh Province are examples of other large projects undertaken under the Assistance.

According to Mr. Ho Le Phong, one of ADB's project specialists at ADB's Viet Nam Resident Mission (VRM) and who has been closely associated with the implementation of the Assistance, the adoption of a decentralized approach with the provinces taking the lead role in the execution of the works has been one of the key factors for the successful implementation of the Assistance. The previous experience of the central agencies in implementing ADB financed projects and the close cooperation between VRM and these agencies were also important factors, according to Mr Le Dinh Thang, another project specialist at VRM. 1/2

The Emergency Assistance, now complete, benefits rural populations in 13 provinces affected by the 2000 flood and storm events. Thousands of children can now pursue their secondary education in newly built schools. In the primary health centers, health care services are being provided under safe and hygienic conditions. The rehabilitated and improved roads and bridges facilitate the movement of goods and access to social infrastructure. Where water resources infrastructure has been rehabilitated or improved, agriculture has recovered and vulnerability to flood-related disasters for rural populations has been reduced.

Contacts

Media Inquiries Only
John Samy
Tel: +844 933 1374 to 76
Email: jsamy@adb.org

=A9 2003 Asian Development Bank

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