Enhancing the resilience inclusive and sustainable eco-human settlement development through small scale infrastructure interventions in the coastal regions of the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam

This project focuses on dealing with saltwater intrusion and coastal erosions in Mekong Delta, which are the major impacts from the climate change. Along with the water resource management and coastal erosion issues, the lack of vertical and horizontal coordination has been bottlenecked for the community to reflect their needs to the provincial and national level policies. In the Mekong Delta, river water and ground water levels are decreasing, while sea levels, flood tides and salt intrusion are on the rise, the demand for water has also increased in production and daily activities due to industrialisation and population growth. The extraction of groundwater has increased rapidly over the past decades and forms one of the main causes of saltwater intrusion into the groundwater. This intrusion has been accelerated by the on-going sea level rise. Saltwater intrusion of groundwater in the Mekong Delta is a highly complex issue as it heavily depends on varying factors, including changes in water supplies, rising water demands, and the impact of climate change especially sea level rise, drought, and rising temperature. Because of saltwater intrusion of the groundwater, a growing number of provinces in the Mekong Delta are also experiencing depleted and degraded freshwater supplies for drinking and domestic use especially in dry season. The solution for the saltwater intrusion is, however, very limited and most of them are not cost-effective nor applicable for certain condition of area.

Project Documents