Among 730 Escherichia coli, 438 Klebsiella pneumoniae, and 141 Proteus mirabilis isolates obtained between September 2000 and September 2001 in seven hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 26.6% were resistant to ceftazidime, 30% were resistant to cefotaxime, 31.5% were resistant to ceftriaxone, 15.9% were resistant to cefoperazone, and 6% were resistant to cefepime. Resistance to imipenem was found in 5.6% of the isolates. In 55 strains producing extended-spectrum ␤-lactamases (32 E. coli isolates, 13 K. pneumoniae isolates, and 10 P. mirabilis isolates), structural genes for VEB-1 (25.5%), CTX-M (25.5%), SHV (38.1%), and TEM (76.3%) enzymes were detected alone or in combination. Sequencing of the PCR products obtained from the K. pneumoniae isolates revealed the presence of bla VEB-1 , bla CTX-M-14 , bla CTX-M-17 , bla SHV-2 , and bla TEM-1 . Molecular typing of the strains with a similar resistance phenotype to broad-spectrum cephalosporins indicated polyclonal spread. ISEcp1 was presumably responsible for dissemination of the bla CTX-M-like gene.

At the end of the year 2021, all 4000 resilient houses that are under the project “Improving the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities to climate change-related impacts in Vietnam” were completed. However, the project sponsor and implementor need to be aware of the level of satisfaction of the stakeholders of these resilient houses, especially for local beneficiaries. This study is carried out to answer several practical questions such as what are the strengths and weaknesses of the project house designs, focusing on the basic needs of beneficiaries. Or, are the beneficiaries satisfied with the house constructed with support from the project, and what are their suggestions to improve either the relevant procedures and processes or future houses to be built by the project or other stakeholders. The findings show several aspects of design and construction of resilient houses such as utilization effectiveness, satisfaction of beneficiaries, and participation of local communities. However, several practical limitations of this phase have been identified, namely, the approved designs do not fully reflect the needs of beneficiaries, the designs lack some essential and basic functionalities, some technical shortcomings exist in design drawings, and support funding is limited. On the basis of that, the authors recommended several valuable measures for effective and sustainable designing and constructing resilient houses.

Vietnam is a country that experiences extreme climate conditions and annual accumulated damage due to typhoons and floods, which seriously destroy houses and cause many deaths. Approximately half a million people currently living within 200 m from the coastline live in unsafe houses. Therefore, the Coastal Resilience Project (the project) was implemented to build 4000 storm- and flood-resistant houses for five coastal provinces in Central Vietnam. The paper is carried out to review existing policies and practices related to the maintenance of resilient houses, as well as to propose feasible maintenance solutions for houses to ensure the sustainability of the project. The result shows that currently, there are no technical instructions or manuals on the maintenance and repair of individual houses in general, or the project houses in particular. Most of the households in the project also have very low and unstable incomes. In addition, as they lack knowledge of how construction works, they know little to nothing about the maintenance of a house. From these findings, the authors recommend several solutions for better maintenance policies and practices on the resilient houses of the project in Vietnam. The project provides several lessons in terms of the maintenance of the resilient houses of future projects in Vietnam and elsewhere, by reviewing existing policies and current practices, as well as proposing feasible measures to ensure the sustainability of the project. The findings in this paper provide valuable information for better maintenance policies and practices of resilient houses for other vulnerable coastal provinces in Vietnam and similar contexts elsewhere.

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