STRENGTHENING WATER GOVERNANCE IN VIETNAM: A CASE STUDY OF COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO WATER INSECURITY IN VINH QUANG WARD, RACH GIA CITY, KIEN GIANG PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Abstract

Vinh Quang Ward is a coastal ward of Rach Gia City, Kien Giang Province which is located in Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Local people deal with water shortage for their domestic use because of salinity intrusion about one month of April 2016. The purpose of this thesis is to understand and improve water governance so as to strengthen water security in Vinh Quang Ward. There were two major concepts for this thesis, namely water security and water governance. For this research, I interviewed twenty-five people in three different villages to have an overview about the issue throughout two years. I interviewed one academic from An Giang University and one from Southern Institute of Water Resources Research to learn about how severe salinity intrusion was. During drought, the piped water distribution system is insufficient so local people struggled with water to reach their daily demand. I also figured out the impacts on local people’s health, livelihood, and business, especially the poor and women. The poor and women who are located further far from centre of city relied on ground water for their domestic use which was not good at quality. This study also revealed weak water governance in Vietnam. The argument of this thesis is that water governance must be strengthened. In other words, water insecurity is not a result of physical water scarcity alone, but also relates to how decisions are taken towards how to address this issue.