The Center for Development Research (ZEF), in collaboration with its partners CIDS, SISD and CTU completed an important part of its fieldwork: In March 2012, three PhD students returned from Vietnam. In May, a survey on more than 200 small-scale enterprises (SSE) was implemented along the Thot Not Canal and, between March and May, a study on ‘Gender and Water: The Role of the Farmer‘s Association and the Women‘s Union’ was conducted in Can Tho City.
The environmental impact of Vietnamese Pangasius production (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus and Pangasianodon bocourti) has been recently discussed as failing to comply with standards of sustainability, caused ostensibly by deficiencies in governance, which are driven by internal and external state mechanisms.
The paper explores the novel dimensions of agrarian change and of an agricultural knowledge-creation culture in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta by examining cases of farmers engaged in knowledge brokering. Farmers empowered with knowledge, and through intensive engagement in networks and communities of practice, are taking an increasingly more important role in diffusing and (re)producing knowledge via brokering services.
The Center of Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, has conducted several studies over the past years concerning policies and practices of water resource management in Vietnam and, more precisely, the Mekong Delta. Several outcomes are presented here in brief summaries including references for further reading.
During the last decades, the Mekong Delta in Vietnam was one of the most productive and fastest growing agricultural areas in the world and even today, growth in agriculture still lasts. This paper illustrates the evolution and changes of agriculture closely linked to the development in water engineering in the Mekong Delta.
For solving the rural water crisis in Can Tho, political authorities currently focus on the construction of piped water supply schemes. However, piped water supply is an economically tight business in the Mekong Delta. This is mainly due to the ‘competition’ of piped water with other water sources, in particular rain water and groundwater from private wells.
For many years, water resources management in Vietnam was concentrated on activities ensuring the available freshwater for agricultural production, including flood control. With the increase of water demands and the emergence of new water usages since the late 1980s, this has subsequently changed.
The whole of Vietnam is shaped by vast deltas and big rivers and water management has always played a crucial role in the economic and social life of Vietnamese people. Moreover, the economy of irrigated rice production, which emerged in the Red River Delta many centuries ago, constitutes an essential part of Vietnamese civilization and history (văn minh lúa nước).
The Mekong Delta is a flood-prone area and floods can cause severe damages to the livelihoods of its population. The historic flood of 2000, in particular, destroyed many rice crops, aquaculture farms, housing and other infrastructure in the flooded areas.
In order to ensure the sustainable exploitation and use of water resources Vietnam has started to elaborate a legal framework of the water sector during recent years. This new legal framework includes a large set of regulations that deals with waste water management, including the treatment and disposal of waste waters from industries, agriculture and households.
Since 1986 and especially during the early 90s, environmental protection has become a constitutional principle in Vietnam as regulated by Articles 17 and 29 of the 1992 Constitution. The first Law on Environmental Protection, passed by the National Assembly on December 27, 1993 created a foundation for environmental legislation becoming an important field in Vietnam’s legal system.
Water in the Mekong Delta is omnipresent and plays a crucial role for the rural population depending on that resource in the pursuit of diverse livelihood activities. This article focuses on the social interaction of paddy farmers and landless people during the annual flood season from a local knowledge perspective.
The rural population of the Mekong Delta is facing increasing problems due to the contamination of domestic water sources. Around half of the population lacks year round access to clean water. In combination with bad hygiene behaviour and poor sanitation there is a high risk for water-related diseases.
Vietnam is embarking on a path towards a knowledge-based economy in which the emergence of knowledge clusters in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta are playing a decisive role. As our paper suggests, clustering appears to have a positive effect not only on the increase of knowledge output, but also on the economic growth of these regions.
Dyke system planning has emerged as a technical solution to the natural occurring floods in many parts of the developing world, such as the Mekong Delta. The paper applies the theory of integrated flood management to understand the inherent planning process in the system, the established institutional structures and the social perceptions of the dyke system.
The construction of knowledge maps, demonstrated in this paper, is designed to show the epistemic landscape of cities, countries or regions. Knowledge assets, knowledge producing and disseminating organisations are referenced to spatial objects and integrated into GIS. They are further represented in thematic maps and in 3-D perspective graphs.
The survey was carried out with the objective of measuring the knowledge asset of water-related organizations in terms of their individual competences. What educational background and professional experiences do people have who work for research institutes, universities and local authorities in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta?
The water supply system in the rural areas of the Mekong Delta – a region where water is naturally abundant - is characterised by a diversity of water sources. Rural households whether they are connected to a piped water supply scheme or not, make use of various water sources such as groundwater, river water and rainwater.
The study on local knowledge on flood season management in the Mekong Delta analyzes how cultural habits of living and farming might foster the adaptation to the natural environment. The Province of Can Tho City represents an interesting case for this kind of research due to its specific settlement history.
In March 2009, the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute (MDI) and the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) started a collaborative research project on local water management in Can Tho City. The research aims at understanding how water is managed at commune and hamlet level.
The lower Mekong Delta, one of the largest river deltas in Asia, is a landscape shaped by the waters of the Mekong River that flows, as last part of its long way from the Tibetan Plateau to the South Chinese Sea, through a dense river and canal network in the Southwest of Vietnam.
This advanced training course was organized by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Southern Institute of Sustainable Development (SISD), formerly the Southern Institute of Social Sciences. The workshop took place from January 5-7 2009 at SISD premises in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
This training course was organized by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Southern Institute of Social Sciences (SISS). The workshop took place from June 16-18 2008 at SISS premises in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
As an example for knowledge dispersion and epistemic landscapes the map illustrates the distribution of students in the Mekong Delta at the provincial level. The map is three-dimensional and includes a profile view from NE to SW. This perspective is also shown in the scene presented below.
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