Protecting water environment in Vietnam’s river basins

(VNF) - On March 22nd, the launching workshop of the JICA-funded project “Strengthening capacity of water environment management in river basins” was held in Hanoi.

The project is expected to calculate the pollution load capacity in targeted localities of Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen in Cau river basin and Ho Chi Minh city, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau in Dong Nai river basin which will be used as a base for them to coordinate water environment management activities in particular and development ones in general, and to improve the coordination mechanism on river basin water environment management (RBWEM) among related authorities.

As a result, the direct beneficiaries are the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE), while the community, including enterprises, will benefit from utilization of improved water quality through better control of water environment in inter-provincial rivers.

The new Law on Environmental Protection 2014 and Law on Water Resource 2012 require further enforcement on river basin water governance; and at the same time, the performance of two existing Environmental Protection Committees in Cau and Dong Nai river basins as well as sub-departments on river basin environment protection have shown strong demand for strengthening their capacity.

At the provincial level, river water pollution remains as one of the greatest challenges while the need on river water use has been significantly increasing. Moreover, pollution in inter-provincial rivers is far beyond the capacity of one province to address, while collaboration/coordination mechanisms are not always in place and workable.

In this context, MONRE is required to take the initiative for improving and developing the collaboration/coordination mechanism not only among provinces, but also between central government and local governments.

Given this background, MONRE and JICA in collaboration with target provinces and cities jointly implement the Project with the purpose of developing and institutionalizing sound policies under the MONRE mandate, as well as strengthening the implementation capacity of the target DONREs regarding RBWEM through implementing the pilot project activities./.

( VNF )