Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta (VMD) is the third largest delta on Earth, and is currently home to 17 million inhabitants, whose livelihoods depend mainly on agricultural and aquacultural production. The VMD, with its extremely low-lying delta plain (average elevation of ~80 cm), is particularly vulnerable to even small changes in relative sea level rise, but also to other climate change impacts, such as increased frequency of intense dry seasons and droughts. Some of these effects are already being felt, e.g., with saline intrusion going deeper into the mainland and causing great damage to the environment and lives. It is expected that in the coming years, water resources in VMD will continue to face significant challenges, including the forecasted rapid increase in the intensity and extent of saline intrusion. Viet Nam’s Nationally Determined Contribution document (NDC) submission to the UNFCCC in 2020 highlights saline intrusion as one of the climate change impact key areas affecting water resources and agriculture sectors, and several policy and planning instruments have been put in place to address this issue. Despite the investments made, including the setup of saline monitoring equipment, data remains fragmented among several institutions and both financial and technical barriers need to be addressed so that the existing physical monitoring stations can be effectively utilized to provide timely data to those who can make decisions and take timely and coordinated action to respond to salinity hazards and prevention.
This technical assistance aims to develop an Information Management System to exchange information and near-real-time data on salinity intrusion, sharing salinity monitoring data and display maps of salinity intrusion in the Vietnam Mekong Delta region (VMD). To ensure the sustainability of the results of this technical assistance, training will be provided on how to operate and utilize the Information Management System developed, so that the River Basin Organization and relevant institutions can effectively share data on salinity intrusion and better incorporate the salinity data in decisions relating to Climate change preparedness and hazard early warning.