Children in Viet Nam promote safe and efficient water use through art
In celebration of World Water Day on 19 March 2026, the Department of Water Resources Management/Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) co-organised in Hanoi the closing and award ceremony of a nationwide painting contest on initiatives for safe and efficient water, in partnership with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Viet Nam and Phuc Dien Secondary School.
30 Mar 2026
Emerging threats in the Ma and Neun/Ca river basins between Viet Nam and Lao PDR underscore the need for strengthened transboundary collaboration
Ha Noi, Viet Nam, 23 March 2026 –The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in cooperation with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) of Lao PDR and the Department of Water Resources Management (DWRM) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) of Viet Nam, convened an annual stocktaking meeting (ASM) of the project Fostering Water and Environmental Security in the Ma and Neun/Ca Transboundary River Basins and Related Coastal Areas in Ha Noi, Viet Nam.
29 Mar 2026
Viet Nam and Lao PDR strengthen cooperation on transboundary rivers
On 22 December 2025 in Hanoi, Nguyen Hoang Hiep, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) of Viet Nam with special responsibility for water met Chanthanet Boualapha, Vice Minister of MAE of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), to discuss transboundary water cooperation. The two countries plan to sign a transboundary water cooperation agreement by mid-2026, which will establish a data sharing mechanism in the transboundary rivers.
09 Mar 2026
Ca Ma project Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis kicks off with field trip in Lao PDR
From 11 to 15 August 2025, IUCN in collaboration with the Lao PDR Department of Water Resources and SNV Lao PDR visited Houaphan and Xiengkhouang Provinces as part of the TDA or Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis for the GEF IW project “Fostering Water and Environmental Security in the Ma and Neun-Ca Transboundary River Basins and Related Coastal Areas in Viet Nam and Lao PDR”, implemented and executed by FAO and IUCN respectively.
04 Nov 2025
Viet Nam and Lao PDR minitries convene to advance transboundary water cooperation project
In July 2025 in Vientiane, Lao PDR, IUCN in collaboration with the Department of Water Resources Management (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Viet Nam), Department of Water Resources (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Lao PDR), and FAO, convened a series of events under the GEF International Waters project “Fostering water and environmental security in the Neun-Ca and Ma transboundary river basins and related coastal areas”.
19 Aug 2025
Evaluating the remote sensing toolkit pilot in the Ma and Neun/Ca transboundary river basins
As a part of GEF IW project “Fostering Water and Environmental Security in the Neun/Ca and Ma Transboundary River Basins and Related Coastal Areas”, implemented by FAO, executed by IUCN and government partners, along with European Space Agency funded project “Pioneering Earth Observation Applications for the Environment–Ecosystem Conservation (PEOPLE-ECCO),” IUCN is collaborating with Hatfield, a Canadian geospatial consultancy, to assess land cover dynamics in upstream terrain in the Ma and Neun/Ca river basins.
10 Aug 2025
Launching a bilateral collaboration project between the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam on strengthening integrated water resources management and ecosystems health in the Neun-Ca and Ma river basins.
Ha Noi, 12 March 2024 – The Department of Water Resources Management (DWRM) of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) Viet Nam in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Department of Water Resources (DWR), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) in Lao PDR, and IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, organize a workshop to launch the project “Fostering Water and Environmental Security in the Ma and Neun-Ca Transboundary River Basins and Related Coastal Areas, Viet Nam and Lao PDR”.
12 Mar 2024
Fostering Water and Environmental Security in the Ma and Neun/Ca Transboundary River Basins and Related Coastal Areas (the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam) is the first bilateral Global Environment Facility (GEF) project of the Lao PDR and Viet Nam focusing on the shared rivers of Ma and Neun/Ca, active from 2023-2028.