Project overview

Fostering Water and Environmental Security in the Ma and Neun-Ca Transboundary River Basins and Related Coastal Areas in Viet Nam and Lao PDR is the first bilateral GEF International Waters project between the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam, focused on the shared Ma and Neun – Ca river basins. The project is implemented by FAO and executed by IUCN and government partners in Lao PDR and Viet Nam.

These two transboundary rivers are adjacent, with similar-sized basins, comparable characteristics and water and environmental management challenges. Key challenges include:

• Hydropower reservoirs causing significant changes to flow in the main rivers and in tributaries in both basins

• Deforestation and changes to forest cover impacting flows and sediment loads

• Agricultural expansion and deforestation

• Increasing water withdrawals associated with demographic growth and rapid economic development affecting environmental flows

• Emergency releases from dams during extreme water events contributing to flooding.

Continuing development in the two basins, combined with climate change, is affecting the populated coastal areas due to the degradation of fresh and near-shore marine waters quality, increasing frequency and magnitude of floods and droughts, and seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers caused by groundwater overextraction and sea-level rise. The emerging situation poses serious threats to water supply for the expanding coastal populations, their livelihoods (from fisheries and aquaculture), and to coastal habitats, such as mangroves, wetlands and fish refugia.

Objective

To enable Viet Nam and Lao PDR to address freshwater resource management and ecosystem health in the transboundary Ma and the Neun/Ca river basins and coastal zones by creating an enabling environment for transboundary cooperation and action.

Outcomes

The project will adopt a source-to-sea (S2S) approach, link with ongoing initiatives dealing with sectoral aspects, and directly inform the design, assessment, and planning of a range of investments in these sectors.

Duration

November 2023 – November 2028

Location

Phu Tho, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Son La, and Dien Bien provinces in Viet Nam, Xiengkhouang and Houaphan provinces in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.