The ancient town of Hoi An is flooded (Photo: Unsplash)

The World Bank’s report “Resilient Shores: Vietnam’s Coastal Development Between Opportunity and Disaster Risk” last Wednesday estimated that 12 million people in coastal provinces are exposed to the threat of intense flooding and over 35 percent of settlements are located on eroding coastlines. Each year, an average of 852 million USD– or 0.5 percent of GDP – and 316,000 jobs in key economic sectors are at risk from riverine and coastal flooding.

The report called for an urgent new resilience development strategy for Vietnam’s coastline. It said if current growth rates in coastal areas are sustained, the additional risk to economic activity could be equivalent to 6.8 billion USD by 2030 if no resilience measures are taken. Delaying action by 10 years could expose 4.3 billion USD of economic growth to natural shocks, said the World Bank report.