VIENTIANE, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lao government bodies on Wednesday reviewed the implementation of the Laos-Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project in 2019 and discussed plans for 2020, local media reported Friday.

File photo: CGTN

Discussions took place during the fourth Steering Committee meeting on the project.

The meeting was attended by representatives of Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Finance, officials from northern Laos' Oudomxay province, the World Bank, and other entities.

"The project has achieved goals set in the plan, of which the main components are reducing the risk of flooding in the center of Xay district, Oudomxay province; increasing the capacity for disaster prevention in the provinces of Phongsaly, Oudomxay and Luang Prabang; and other work related to reducing disaster risk," local daily Vientiane Times on Friday quoted an official from the Department of Planning and Investment as saying.

The project was given permission to go ahead in August 2017 and will run for five years.

Laos has faced many natural disasters, especially widespread flooding in 2018, which caused extensive property damage and loss of life. Some 125 districts, 2,433 villages, and 133,382 families were affected.

Ninety people died and 26 people are still missing, while flood damage was estimated at 3,167 billion Lao kip (some 356 million U.S. dollars).

Lao government allocated 100 billion Lao kip (over 11 million U.S. dollars) for emergency and recovery efforts for the transport and forestry sectors, and another 500 billion Lao kip (nearly 56 million U.S. dollars) to repair infrastructure damaged by floodwaters, according to the report.