CONTEXT

The Mekong Delta, the source of livelihood for more than 17 million people, is one of the regions most affected by the impacts of climate change worldwide. These include rising sea levels, higher temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events. Land subsidence and rising sea levels are causing increasing saltwater intrusion into freshwater bodies and soil, in addition to floods, particularly in the coastal areas. Inappropriate land and water management, the construction of dykes for flood protection, and an increase in the number of hydroelectric dams – particularly in the upper Mekong Delta, are putting further strain on the complex Mekong Delta ecosystem.

In this context, the major impacts are the increasing loss of land and water resources caused by coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and freshwater scarcity. The people most affected are those living on the poverty line.

The complex Delta ecosystem and the interplay between different areas are seriously impacted by the investment policies for economic development in the Mekong Delta, with the consequences increasingly being felt across borders. Infrastructure and land use measures have a direct impact on the hydrological system, on the regeneration and quality of groundwater, and on soil fertility, and have an indirect impact on the capacity of carbon sinks (greenhouse gas reduction).

Natural hazards and climate risks also pose a challenge to the Mekong Delta’s rapid and often uncontrolled urban growth. The objective here is to eliminate these risks through capital-intensive investments in infrastructure, thus securing the successful developments achieved to date. Above all, the rising frequency and intensity of flooding has increasingly pushed urban infrastructure up to if not beyond the limits of its capacity in recent decades. The combined urban rainwater and drainage water systems for stormwater runoff often lack the required capacity, i.e. the drainage infrastructure is undersized, of inferior quality and lacks adequate maintenance. This problem is further exacerbated by unsystematic drainage planning based on unreliable datasets, a rise in urban soil sealing, the uncoordinated management of river catchment areas, rising sea levels and increasingly intensive rainfall events.

In recent years, the Vietnamese Government has initiated various legislative processes to improve regional coordination in the Mekong Delta (Prime Minister’s Decision 593/QD TTg; Resolution 120/NQ CP). The Planning Law that came into force on 1 January 2019 makes it compulsory practice for the first time ever to develop an integrated approach for regional master plans.  

For this process to succeed, it will need support, as the Vietnamese Government still does not have a fully operational, innovative, comprehensive and coordinated regional approach.

The causes include the lack of an adequate institutional framework – specifically, coordination mechanisms and capacities at the different levels of government. Strategies at the national and provincial levels are not sufficiently coordinated and development partners are rarely part of a coordinated cooperation arrangement between different government authorities at the national and provincial levels. Incoherent investment policies make it difficult to apply innovative technologies for sustainable climate-smart water management in urban or in rural areas.

OBJECTIVE

The climate-resilient management of natural resources in coastal areas of the Mekong Delta is improved to ensure sustainable development in the region.

OUR APPROACH

PROGRAMME INFORMATION