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Information on Disaster Risk Reduction of the Member Countries

Lao People's Democratic Republic (the)

General Information

Formal Name: Lao People's Democratic Republic
Located inland of the Indochina, Laos borders China, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia and Thailand. Most of the 240,000 square kilometers land is occupied by mountains. Deforestation has become a serious problem. Near the Mekong River, it spreads the plains. Tropical monsoon climate. The rainy season from May to November, whereas December and April is the dry season.
The capital is Vientiane. It has about 5.8 million people, out of which the Lowland Lao population accounts for 6 percent. The remaining 40 percent is occupied by 49 races.

Overview of Disasters

Drought, Earthquake, Epidemic, Extreme Temperature, Flood, Slides, Volcano, Wave/ Surge, Wild Fires, Wind Storm

Recent Major Disasters

Flood (July 2008)

Torrential rains caused floods around the Mekong River in July 2008. 12 were killed, 228,320 have been affected, and the total loss was US$ 4.41 million.

Disaster Management System

Legal System

The Prime Minister's Decree No. 158 (1999) created the National, Provincial and District Disaster Management Committees (DMCs). It provided the basis for the development of a disaster management policy. NDMC Decree No. 97 series of 2000 assigned the roles and responsibilities of various sectors composing the NDMC.
In December 2007, the other governmental decree was issued, which seeks to change the disaster management policy from a emergency response to a disaster risk management.

Organization

The National Disaster Management Committee is coordinating disaster prevention and protection activities and efforts in the country. It promotes disaster reduction activities of existing Line Ministries and Provinces on natural disaster management and protection which consists of representatives of key ministries, institutions and provinces.
National Disaster Management Office is a policy implementation organization under the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (MLSW).
There are local level committees at the levels of provinces, districts, and villages.

Plan

The National Disaster Management Plan for the period 2001-2020 aims at: identifying the focal point in all sectors (state and privation); developing and establish early warning and information system in all of 142 districts in country; setting up information network in disaster prone villages; constructing warehouses for storing the emergency assistance materials in all provinces and some disaster prone districts; continuing public awareness activities with media; widely organizing training on DM for all sectors and levels; organizing simulation exercise with the involvement of rescue team unit in sectors and community; and raising capacity up on cooperation with other countries in the framework of Asian, Regional and United Nations to exchange information and experiences on DM.
Also, Strategic Plan on Disaster Risk Management was formulated for the year 2003-2005, 2005-2010, and 2010-2020.