The workshop From Risk to Resilience – Managing Water Risks in a Changing Climate took place over two days at RMIT University in Ho Chi Minh City. It was an activity from the Water Stewardship Vietnam project by Water Stewardship Asia Pacific.
The workshop contains 3 main components: The Plenary session, the Water-Food-Energy Nexus simulation and the Water Stewardship framework step by step foundation training. The discussion has explored collaborative approaches and thinking systems to improve sustainable water management and governance in Vietnam, especially in the context of climate change.
In the plenary session, the participants learned about the overall concepts, current status and policy trend of water resources in Vietnam and the challenges in water security and other social aspects related to water such as the inclusion of marginalized communities. There are new amendments in the current Law on Water Resources and Law on Water Supply which adopt the catchment approach in managing water and planning water usages.
The year 2024 will see the master plans of the major basins across Vietnam, and the enactment of many new clauses from the two major water laws, which will have strong implication to business operations and the implementation of policy for local governments. However, there is stronger need for a collaborative framework and agile political system from the local government to bring meaningful actions drawing from the potential data from the new master plans.
The second component is the Nexus Simulation on Water-Food-Energy where participants have the opportunity put themselves through different roles to slowly dissect the complexity of sharing resources among many stakeholders. They represented the major water users (agriculture, industry, energy and household) and the indirect stakeholders (International Agency, CSO, NGO, journalist) that could influence how the water is being managed. They came to realize the shared challenges how easy it was to put many ecosystems in danger if we only focus on certain activities.
The participants got to apply their knowledge from the theoretical concept from the plenary session and the nexus simulation to their context and explore how to implement water stewardship principles step-by-step to the catchment they operate in. They work together with others from the same catchment to identify the potential risks, their knowledge gap and potential action plan and how to involve other stakeholders in the area.
The workshop concluded with new connections among the participants, and a deeper understanding of a more holistic and inclusive approach to water management.
Water Stewardship Vietnam 