"Although local people are used to seasonal floods and disaster preparedness is part of their daily life, the weather has become more and more unpredictable, and we've seen an increased number of cyclones," said Ho Viet Hiep, Vice Chairman of An Giang's Provincial People's Committee.
UNICEF will continue to support disaster preparedness for flooding and epidemic outbreaks.
Despite the recurrent flood threats, up to 72.5% of the village respondents did not have any form of disaster preparedness before the August 2012 flood.
Of the village respondents, 80% reported that they had experienced a disaster in the previous 3 years.1 However, 72.5% of the village respondents did not have any disaster preparation before the August 2012 flood, and 64% had never thought about disaster preparedness at all.
Though many Hongyan villagers had experienced devastating economic losses from previous floods, disaster risk perceptions, health risk awareness, and disaster preparedness were remarkably low.
PROMISE has developed a common understanding of the flood disaster risks in Jakarta, raised public awareness, built community preparedness, and created locally adapted early warning systems.
Leaning and Newnham joined a group from CCOUC's Ethnic Minority Health Project to explore issues of disaster preparedness and public health issues in a remote, flood-prone village in southern Sichuan Province.
In this emergency, it was very clear that there was a payback from preparedness, both in terms of community disaster preparedness, general agency preparedness, and specific preparedness for the floods.
So the best hope is to give people better defences against the annual downpour.Muhammad Saidur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre, a non-government group, insists that does not mean "flood prevention".
As the rainy season enters peak levels, Uganda's ministry of disaster preparedness last week issued a public risk alert, warning of episodic flash floods and landslides that would lead to loss of lives and destruction of property in May.
