tailieunhanh - Sustainable water management for rural development in the Mekong river delta, Vietnam

The Mekong River Delta (MD) in Vietnam has an area of 4 million hectares. The economical production in this region is highly dependent on water from the river and canal system. More than two-third of 17 million inhabitants of the MD live in rural areas and depend totally on the water resources for rice, upland crop irrigation, aquaculture of fish and shrimp, domestic drinking and industrial water supply and for transportation on rivers and canals | The second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment Hanoi, Vietnam, 1-3 December, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MEKONG RIVER DELTA, VIETNAM . TUAN1*, . WYSEURE2 , . VIET1 1 College of Technology, CanTho University, Campus II, Street 3/2, CanTho City, Vietnam. * E-mail: latuan@ 2 Laboratory for Land and Water Management, Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 21, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium Abstract: The Mekong River Delta (MD) in Vietnam has an area of 4 million hectares. The economical production in this region is highly dependent on water from the river and canal system. More than two-third of 17 million inhabitants of the MD live in rural areas and depend totally on the water resources for rice, upland crop irrigation, aquaculture of fish and shrimp, domestic drinking and industrial water supply and for transportation on rivers and canals. In the MD agricultural production consumes around 85% of the total water supply. Approximately 2 million tons of rice, produced in the MD, are yearly exported from Vietnam to the rest of the world. The rapid expansion of intensified agricultural cultivation and urbanization leads to water resources pollution. Shortage of good quality water becomes increasingly a great challenge to the sustainable water management. How to control the quantity and quality of the water efficiently is an important key factor for rural development. This paper will present some data figures and discussion concerning the current problems and strategies to alleviate the bottlenecks in water management. Keywords: sustainable water management, rural development, water quantity and quality. 1. INTRODUCTION The Mekong river (see figure 1) with the length of 4,200 kilometers is the 12th longest river in the world, its source originates at an altitude of 5,181 meters on the Tibetan