Public involvement in the Red River Basin management decisions and preparedness for the next flood

Several water policy principles considered to be modern and internationally sanctioned have recently been adopted by Vietnam. This article focuses on the establishment of the Red River Basin Organization but expands its analysis to the wider transformations of the water sector that impinge on the formation and effectiveness of this organization. It shows that the promotion of integrated water resource management icons such as river basin organizations (RBOs) by donors has been quite disconnected from existing institutional frameworks. If policy reforms promoted by donors and development banks have triggered changes, these changes may have come not as a result of the reforms themselves but, rather, due to the institutional confusion they have created when confronted with the emergence of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE). For the MoNRE, the river basin scale became crucial for grounding its legitimacy and asserting its role among the established layers of the administration, while for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, RBOs became a focal point where power over financial resources and political power might potentially be relocated at its expense. Institutional change is shown to result from the interaction between endogenous processes and external pressures, in ways that are hard to predict.

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Ecosystem Approach

Resource and Environmental Management ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190885816.003.0003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 63-85

Author(s):

Bruce Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Environmental Management ◽

Trinidad And Tobago ◽

River Basin ◽

Coastal Management ◽

River Basin Management ◽

Ecosystem Approach ◽

Flood Damage ◽

Basin Management ◽

Red River Basin ◽

Goals And Objectives

An ecosystem approach ideally focuses on determining vision, goals, and objectives in order to guide management of the interrelationships between and among relevant biophysical and socioeconomic variables for a specified ecosystem of interest. A distinction between ends and means is important, as too often in resource and environmental management the ecosystem approach is treated as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end. Various views regarding the ecosystem approach are considered, followed by an examination of comprehensive and integrated interpretations of the ecosystem approach, and applications of the concept with reference to river basin management in Ontario, Canada, coastal management in Trinidad and Tobago, and the water–energy–food nexus. Jeff Lewis’s guest statement examines the experience in applying the ecosystem approach regarding water quality and flood damage reduction by the Red River Basin Commission in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba.

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Public Involvement in Flood Management in the Red River Basin: An Assessment of a Recent Initiative

Canadian Water Resources Journal / Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques ◽

10.4296/cwrj2803461 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 461-480 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

A. John Sinclair ◽

Alan Diduck ◽

Toni Morris-Oswald ◽

Michael Olczyk

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Public Involvement ◽

Flood Management ◽

Red River ◽

Red River Basin ◽

Recent Initiative

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Establishing river basin organisations in Vietnam: Red River, Dong Nai River and Lower Mekong Delta

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2001.0557 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 43 (9) ◽

pp. 273-281 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

P. Taylor ◽

G. Wright

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

River Basin ◽

Mekong Delta ◽

River Basin Management ◽

Red River ◽

Basin Management ◽

The Public ◽

The People ◽

Present Part ◽

Technical Capacity

River basin management is receiving considerable attention at present. Part of the debate, now occurring worldwide, concerns the nature of the organisations that are required to manage river basins successfully, and whether special-purpose river basin organisations (RBOs) are always necessary and in what circumstance they are likely to (i) add to the management of the water resources and (ii) be successful. The development of river basin management requires a number of important elements to be developed to a point where the river basin can be managed successfully. These include the relevant laws, the public and non-government institutions, the technical capabilities of the people, the understanding and motivation of people, and the technical capacity and systems, including information. A river basin organisation (or RBO) is taken to mean a special-purpose organisation charged with some part of the management of the water resources of a particular river basin. Generally speaking, such organisations are responsible for various functions related to the supply, distribution, protection and allocation of water, and their boundaries follow the watershed of the river in question. However, the same functions can be carried out by various organisations, which are not configured on the geographical boundaries of a river basin. This paper outlines recent work on river basin organisation in Vietnam, and makes some comparisons with the situation in Australia.

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