People struggle to travel on a flooded street in HCM City's Thu Duc District. The Government has earmarked US$18 million for two programmes this year to improve the country's ability to cope with climate change.

Around VND131 billion will go to a programme to mitigate pollution.

It will improve the environment quality in severely polluted traditional trade villages and treat waste water in towns along the Nhue-Day and Cau rivers in the north and the Dong Nai in the south.

The rest of the outlay is for a programme to cope with climate change that will develop pilot models to adapt to climate change in the central province of Quang Nam and southern province of Ben Tre.

Climate change is a new subject and so far only 35 provinces, all on the coast or in the Mekong Delta — or both — where the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels are likely to be the severest, have announced action plans for coping with it. In the three years since they were introduced some policies and programmes related to climate change have already proved their worth.

Awareness about climate change has generally increased, measures to cope with it have been deployed by both central and local authorities, and international co-operation and assistance have reached significant levels.

According the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the national programme for coping with climate change has moved to the action stage and choosing the best models is very important.

The ministry has asked relevant authorities to review and consider their plans, models, and budgets to create long-term programmes.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang has approved another VND69 billion ($3 million) allocation for 15 climate-change research projects.

(VNS)