WB helps Can Tho adapt to climate change

(VOV) - The World Bank, in coordination with Can Tho City, held a seminar on February 8 to devise measures to cope with climate change in the future.

Experts proposed that Can Tho combine environmental observation with protection and sustainable development. They said the city should provide evaluations on changes in environmental quality in key observation areas to meet the requirements of state management on environmental protection, release timely warnings against the danger of environmental pollution and degradation, and build a database on environmental quality for storing, supplying and exchanging information across the country.

The general urban development plan with vision to 2030, including transport development, must take climate change into account, participants proposed.

They said the city should encourage businesses, production units and craft villages to apply environmentally friendly technologies which help reduce pollution and gas emission. It should focus on measures to raise public awareness of climate change and its impact on the economy, society and environment.

In the initial period, they suggested city should help local people stabilise their lives in flood seasons and assist localities with hydrometeorology forecasting to mitigate natural disasters.

Scientists forecast that by the year 2100 climate change will significantly change the natural and socio-economic environment in the Mekong Delta region, including Can Tho. If the city does not actively address this issue, it will be submerged by more than 1m, losing a large amount of agricultural land. Water levels in the Mekong River will drop by 2-4 percent in the dry season and increase by 7-15 percent in the flood season, exacerbating floods and droughts. Declining water resources will seriously affect agricultural production, fishery, transport and public health. Consequently, the living conditions of millions of people will be affected.

Since 1996, floods in Can Tho have killed 123 people, destroyed 365,000 houses, 1,597 schools, and 7,000 km of roads, and submerged 104,000 hectares of crops.

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