Vietnam must improve sea defence in climate change fight

Vietnam will have to upgrade its sea defences to brace for rising ocean levels and stronger typhoons caused by global warming, a senior scientist has said, state media reported Thursday.

The country must spend more than 600 million dollars until 2020 to reinforce and raise sea dykes between central Quang Ngai and southern Kien Giang provinces, the water resources expert said, the official Vietnam News daily reported.

Work is needed on about 520 kilometres (320 miles) of sea dykes and over 320 kilometres of river dykes that are unable to resist flood tides and storms, said Southern Institute of Water Resources director Le Manh Hung.

Vietnam has more too lose from climate change than almost any other country, facing a risk on par with some island-states and low-lying countries such as Bangladesh.

With a 3,200-kilometre coastline and two of the largest low-lying river deltas in the world, Vietnam tops the world's developing countries in the risk it faces from climate change, the World Bank has warned.

"Scientific evidence is now overwhelming" that climate change and rising sea levels are real threats, and the impact on Vietnam would be "potentially catastrophic," the World Bank said in a report last year.

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