Mekong Forum on Water, Food and Energy. 2012. Presentation from Session 11: Research Challenges in Water Governance: Institutions, Environment and Livelihoods

1. 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 Hieu
An Giang University

2. Contents
• Background information
• Objectives and research question
• Methods
• Preliminary findings

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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?

8. 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.

9. 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

10. Study site

11. Case study II
Case study I
II
I

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Many farming activities inside the dike compartments

17. 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.

18. Thank you for your attention !