Drinking Water Supply Vulnerability in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta
BACKGROUND
The Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers. It is the third-largest river in Asia and the largest river in Southeast Asia. The source of the Mekong is located on the high Tibetan plateau in China. As the river flows downstream, it is joined by tributaries from Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand and Cambodia, eventually reaching its delta in Vietnam.
On average, every year about 460 billion cubic metres of water flows from the Mekong into Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Region.[1] However, despite receiving this enormous amount of water every year, the delta’s population of about 20 million people face many challenges in obtaining fresh water that is suitable for drinking and other domestic purposes. There are also concerns that the water insecurity these communities currently face could significantly worsen in the future due to climate change and other developments in the Mekong Basin. The delta is Vietnam’s main agricultural centre, so water insecurities for communities living here could have implications for Vietnam’s food security and economy at a national level.
Due to these concerns, the World Bank, with support from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership contracted ICEM to undertake a vulnerability assessment for rural water supply systems in the Mekong Delta region under two steps, as discussed below. The first step was to assess the vulnerability of the delta’s rural water supply systems, and the potential effects of climate change and regional development on these vulnerabilities in the future. The second step was to recommend ways to increase the resilience of water supply systems to these vulnerabilities.
STEP 1: VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT
Figure 1: Known rural drinking water systems in […]
