The Vietnamese Hydrocracy And The Mekong Delta

Subduing nature and harnessing water resources rose to become the key paradigm of modernization in the Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Over the past 40 years, waterscape engineering turned Vietnam's largest river estuary into one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the world. This book traces water resources development from the time of the socialist-oriented hydraulic mission and Green Revolution, which began in the late 1970s under the economic rationale of central planning, to more recent trends responding to renovation policy, global environmental change, and Vietnam's capitalist transformation. Analytically, the focus is with the nexus of water regulation, bureaucratic power, and socio-ecological change, as well as the vested interests and corresponding strategic actions that coalesce around the technocratic hydro-management. Going beyond the scope of the Mekong Delta, the book offers new perspectives and critical reflections on water governance dynamics and institutional reforms in Vietnam, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 25) [Subject: Asian Studies, Vietnamese Studies, Hydrology, Environmental Studies, Natural Resources]

Lack of access to clean water is an urgent problem in developing countries, including Vietnam. This book investigates the 'everyday politics' of domestic water supply and sanitation in the rural Mekong Delta. It offers new theoretical perspectives on policy-making in Vietnam, as well as the cultural aspects of globalization. The book shows that policy practices have to be understood as mechanisms for the (re-)production of a political order, manifest in the cultural and social properties of the Vietnamese state. It provides a critical perspective on donor support to Vietnamese water policy and practice. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 20)

The Mekong River has been a main source of conquest, conflict, and cooperation in the Southeast Asian region. Much has been written on the vital and critical importance of the Mekong River fresh water to the sustainable economic development of the Mekong Delta. This book selects the Mekong Delta as a case study of regional cooperation for water and food security for not only for Vietnam but also for the world in a new century of global economy. It focuses not only on the Mekong Delta as an integral part of the River but also on Can Tho City and its 12 provinces that produce over 50 percent of the country’s rice output and 60 percent of total fishery output. The book takes a micro approach to examine how each province is adapting to the twin threats of mainstream dams construction and climate change, reducing fresh water flows and increasing saline infusions on its present and future economy. Finally, it reviews the roles of international institutional arrangements, namely the Mekong Committee and the Mekong River Commission, in promoting regional cooperation among the riparian states for political and economic development of the Mekong Delta.

Floods are generally perceived as natural hazards. This book, in contrast, portrays the 'beautiful floods' of the Mekong Delta, which annually constitute a substantial resource for people's rural livelihoods. With a focus on floods, the book employs a 'lifeworlds' analysis to investigate dynamics of environmental and livelihood knowledge among farming and fishing communities, and it demonstrates that rapid agrarian change has both positive and negative impacts. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 19)

The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is extremely vulnerable to floods and, therefore, the establishment of dike systems is generally considered an appropriate approach to flood control. Based on intensive field work in the heart of the Delta, this dissertation investigates current dike planning practices, as well as its implementation at district and commune levels. The research reveals numerous shortcomings with regard to planning and shows that the dike system also produces adverse negative impacts on the ecosystems and livelihoods. Dissertation. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 18)

This book about the Mekong Delta presents a unique collection of state-of-the-art contributions by international experts from different scientific disciplines about the characteristics and pressing water-related challenges of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The Mekong Delta belongs to one of the areas, which are to expect the largest challenges concerning environmental change and climate change induced sea level rise . The Delta acts as the “rice bowl” of Southeast Asia and is home to over 17 Million people, who need to cope with ecologic as well as socio-economic changes linked to the rapid economic development of the country. Annual floods, severe droughts, salt water intrusion, degrading water quality, tropical cyclones, hydrologic changes due to hydropower projects in the upstream of the Mekong, coastal erosion, and the loss of biodiversity are some of the problems in the region. Heterogeneous resource management responsibilities, and the fact that the Mekong – and thus also the Delta – is influenced by six countries aggravate the situation. Integrated water resources management and fostered cooperation and information exchange are pressing needs for the sustainable development of the Delta.

This book, based on anthropological research on local irrigation management in the Mekong Delta, sheds light on state-society interactions at the interface between bureaucratic and informal areas. Data from ethnographic case studies was framed abductively by an institutional bricolage approach (Cleaver 2012) and state power (Goebel 2011). The study goes beyond an institutions process and individual bargaining to argue that local irrigation management is guided by the co-evolution between the state and local actors. It is the everyday dialogue that, in the co-existence of the hierarchical state management structure and the space of local flexibility, officially and unofficially refines the local practices. (Series: ?ZEF Development Studies, Vol. 29) [Subject: Politics, Environmental Studies, Asian Studies, Agriculture

The Mekong Delta is the lowest section of the gigantic Mekong River. In a strictly geographical sense, the delta landscape already begins in Cambodia, but in international perception, Mekong Delta refers primarily to the actual estuary of the river, which drains into the sea on Vietnam's territory via nine main branches and a labyrinth of natural and artificial waterways. Hence its Vietnamese name Sông Cửu Long (Nine Dragon River). The Mekong is one of the last largely unregulated and relatively unpolluted major rivers on the Asian mainland. Its value for the ecological diversity of the entire Southeast Asian region is inestimable and therefore all the more threatened by water pollution and gigantic dam projects. The Mekong Delta is, contrary to a perception often prevalent, a human-made environment. It was created in a process of conflict and cooperation between the peoples of the region that lasted at least three centuries. But the Mekong Delta is also threatened from another side, from the sea. The level of the world's oceans is already rising due to global warming. We try to give an overview of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta from different scientific perspectives and for a broader audience. The book is an outcome of the very fruitful cooperation between Justus Liebig University Gießen, Germany, and An Giang University in Long Xuyen, member of the National University of Vietnam, VNU, Ho Chi Minh City.