Water, faming governance and adaptation to climate change for “dike compartments”: a case

study in An Giang province, Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Prepared by Nguyen Van Kien Tran Van HieuAn Giang University

Contents

• Background information• Objectives and research question• Methods• Preliminary findings

Background information

• After a series of severe flood events in the MRD in 1978, 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2000, local people and communities in the flood prone areas of the MRD experienced severe damage on houses, crops, and animal and human losses

• Vietnamese government and local communities in the flood prone areas of the MRD decided to construct dike compartments as the key measures for living with floods. Therefore, this is lead to the result, 12,000 km of high dikes were constructed which formed 1,200 dike compartments in frequent flooded provinces of the MRD

Background information (cont.)• Cropping activities and water governance have

been changed inside the compartment as the dike compartments function as a collective good.

• This change has brought new challenges for farmers as conventional choices of individual based decision making do not operate properly inside the high dike compartment along with climate change may add new risks on water resources in terms of droughts and flooding to the Mekong Delta.

Background information (cont.)

• These new risks require adaptive institutional arrangement for governance of water resources and farming activities which enhances community resilience to climate change.

• Need to be understanding the existing institutional arrangement of water and farming governance, its challenges and opportunities inside the “dike compartment” is very important for designing water and farming strategies at local communities to adapt to climate change in the MRD

Objectives• To ascertain the existing institutional arrangement for

water and farming governance inside “dike compartments”

• To determine the decision making processes of choices of irrigation schemes and farming activities inside “dike compartments”

• To identify the key challenges and opportunities of the existing water and farming governance inside “dike compartments”

• To suggest the strategies for water and farming governance that enhance community resilience to climate change inside “dike compartments” in the flood prone provinces of the MRD.

Research questions• What are the existing institutional arrangements for

governance of water and farming activities inside the “dike compartments” in the flood prone provinces of the MRD?

• How do farmers make decision on selection of irrigation and farming activities inside the “dike compartments” in the flood prone provinces of the MRD?

• What are the challenges and opportunities of the existing water and farming governance inside the “dike compartments” in the flood prone provinces of the MRD?

• What are the strategies for sustainable use of water and adapting to climate change inside the “dike compartments” in the flood prone provinces of the MRD?

Methods

• The research employed a mixed method: qualitative and quantitative to collect and analysis data to explore four research questions.

• Five focus group discussions, ten in-depth interviews, and 30 structured household interviews are conducted with different socio-economic and occupational groups in each study site.

Study site• Two typical types of institutional arrangement

are selected for a comparison. – Kien An commune of Cho Moi district, of An Giang

province which represents the traditional water/flood management styles (inside the farm dikes)

– Phu Thanh commune of Phu Tan district, in An Giang province which represents the reformed institutional arrangement at local level, the compartment board of management (CMB) which is based by farmers was formed to facilitate decision making processes in water and farming management

Study site

II

II

Case study IICase study II

Case study ICase study I

What have been done • In depth interview at the province, district and

commune levels (4 meetings) • Focus Group Discussion: 10 meetings at two

communes • Analyse the result from in depth interview and

Focus Group Discussion meetings

Preliminary findings• There have been changed in water and

farming governance after the dike compartments were installed in two study sites.

• Water and farming activities are managed by a common top-down approach in An Giang province, but local stakeholder participation in some stages of the process to some extents

• More stakeholders to participate in decision making process in term of water and farming governance after the dike compartments

Preliminary findings

• Dike systems in Phu Thanh commune of Phu Tan district allow more flexibility for water and farming governance than in the first case study (Kien An commune of Cho Moi district). Local farmers’ groups are more likely to involve in water and crop management inside the dikes.

• There is diversity in local groups and water service providers in the case study two compared to the first one.

Preliminary findings

• In terms of adaptation to climate change– The dike compartment in the study site two

provides more opportunities to regulate water (xa lu) for coping with floods.

– The challenge remains in the first case study is the conflicts between interest of different farmer’s groups in decision making for flood management. This may a key barrier for improving community resilience in the face of climate change.

Many farming activities inside the dike compartments

Going to do next

• The next quantitative research will be carried out in the next months to test the perceptions of dike performance by different farmers’ group about the opportunities and challenges of these two dike systems in coping with climate change.

Thank you for your attention !