As many as 40,000 families in central provinces will receivefinancial assistance to build flood-proof houses under a Ministry ofConstruction proposal approved by the Government on February 20.

"Solid houses and other facilities must be built in flood-proneareas," Deputy Minister Nguyen Tran Nam told Tuoi Tre (Youth)newspaper.

To qualify for the assistance, households must belocated in flood-prone, remote villages in the provinces of Thanh Hoa,Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam,Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, aswell as the city of Da Nang.

The programme will help 15,000poor families in 2014 with a total of 156 billion VND (7.4 million USD)from the State budget. Another 25,000 households will receive support in2015.

Each household will receive 10 million VND (about 500USD) each, while families living in remote areas that face greatdifficulties will receive 12 million VND (nearly 600 USD) each. Theywill also be able to apply for preferential loans of up to 15 millionVND (700 USD) from social policy banks.

The project costs about1 trillion VND (nearly 48 million USD), much less than the cost ofdealing with the aftermath of floods, Nam pointed out. Recently, theGovernment gave 2 trillion VND (over 95 million USD) in flood relieffunds to four central provinces.

Under a pilot projectin 2012, some 700 flood-resistant houses were built in 14 communes ofseven central provinces. They have remained solid despite recentfloods, the deputy minister said.-VNA