A major project to evacuate people from areas vulnerable to natural disasters has run short of both cash and land.

Flooding inflicted heavy damage on a mountainous area in the northern province of Bac Kan in July.

It follows heavy inflicted flooding damage on a mountainous area in the northern province of Bac Kan in July.

Back in 2006, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development started a project to move more than 173,000 families by 2015. Each lived in areas with high potential for flooding, landslides and land erosion. Areas included the Red River and Mekong deltas, the central coastal and the northern mountainous regions.

So far more than 57,700 families have been moved, but the ministry now lacks the cash to continue.

Deputy agriculture minister Ho Xuan Hung said nearly 15.600 families need to be moved urgently by 2010.

The government has spent VND200-300 billion ($11-16.7 million) every year on the evacuation, but this has only met half of demand, the Ministry of Investment and Planning reported at the meeting.

It claimed that many local governments have not made the project a priority and released enough of their own budget to enable residents to be moved faster.

Natural disasters killed many people and damaged properties every year, the ministry said.

The agriculture ministry said at the meeting that getting enough land for relocation, especially arable land where relocated families could resume their cultivation was another major difficulty.

Agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat said his ministry would ask the Government to make more funds available for the project – part of which would be spent ensuring residents had a proper livelihood in their new location.

Under a new proposal which was approved by city and provincial leaders at the meeting, each family will be supported with VND15-25 million, depending on how far they have to move. Families losing productive land will receive VND30 million.

Officers said that the project has not only saved the residents from disasters but also protected the environment.

VietNamNet/TN