A consulting workshop to enhance water resource management and urban planning to respond to climate change was held in the central province of Ninh Thuan on March 10.
Dr. Robert Mellor from the Southeast Asia Institute for Water Resources and Environment (SAIWRE) said a consulting group from his agency will support Ninh Thuan’s relevant parties in studying causes and impacts of climate change, thus building appropriate plans for long-term urban development and water management in river basins; while fostering links in the field among all-level authorities, the private arena and the community.
SAIWRE expert Dao Trong Tu underlined the necessity to improve the capabilities of water resource management and urban planning, saying that this will help increase development opportunities in the context of scarcity of natural resources and dropped financial assistance, generating a necessary development of technology.
State management agencies and enterprises should have a deeper understanding of water resources to create suitable solutions to effectively manage water in river basins, thus ensuring sustainable socio-economic development in the locality, he remarked.
According to experts and scientists to the event, the daily activities of humans are causing global climate change, and this is a great challenge facing countries worldwide, including Vietnam.
Central localities such Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan and Ha Tinh, have been severely affected by El Nino, which causes prolonged drought and saline intrusion that are taking a toll on socio-economic development, they said.
The Ninh Thuan provincial authorities designed a plan of climate change adaptation covering 2011-2020 as part of the National Target Programme to Respond to Climate Change initiated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
However, the locality has yet to build a master plan for the development of water resources, making management and usage of water resources in the locality in dry and rainy seasons ineffective.
VNA
