Lecture 4 Climate change, Environment issues and Impacts

The poor are also most at risk because they have little diversity in their income sources. They lack the resources and ability to invest to absorb climate related risks, or to recover from extreme events.

Lecture 4 Climate change, Environment issues and Impacts

Lam Thi Thu Suu

CSRD Suu.csrd@gmail.com

Sea level

rise (m)

Land lost (%)

Pop displaced (%)

# 1.0 # 25 # 20 (3.5 mil.)

# 2.0 # 50 # 75 (14 mil )

Mekong delta as one of three

hardest-hit delta regions by

climate change worldwide (IPCC 4th

Assessment Report, 2007)

http://climatechange.worldbank.org/ sites/default/files/documents/Vietn am-EACC-

Social.pdf

Vietnam as the top four countries affected by sea level rise

Delta supplies more than 53% of the nation’s rice and crop food, 80% of the total fish production, and 75% of fruits for domestic and export

Climate trends Trends

- Upper stream :river banks eroded water

shortage, fire, insects, delayed growth of

trees and plantation, Tiredness and

illness, lost of income

- Middle part: house and vegetable

damage, lost income and lost of

livelihood, low productivity due to salty

soil, flooded, eroded river banks

- Lower stream : death, injures,

infrastructure damage, lost and damage

of rice, fishing gear, lost of land, lack of

water, shrimp farming affected, delayed

fishery processing activities

Current impact and Expected impacts

Vulnerability

- Physical vulnerability : always suffering from

extreme weather (land territory, tropical

monsoon climate and regional climate variation)

- Social –economic vulnerability (poor

infrastructure, lack of insurance system, credit, knowledge, poor management, irigation,ect)

Who are vulnerable?

- People living along in low deltas

and coastal belts.

- Migrant and poor labor residents

in cities

- Ethnic minority, women, children

and elderly.

The poor are also most at risk

because they have little diversity

in their income sources They lack

the resources and ability to invest

to absorb climate related risks, or

to recover from extreme events

Xayaburi dam and Don Sahong being

constructed in Lower Mekong river in Laos

Water Conversion Project along the

Mekongs

Hydropower development in VN

Hydropower 34.8%

Gas thermal 2.2% Coal thermal

18.5%

Oil thermal 2.7%

Gas Turbine, CCGT

31.4%

Import 4.7% Diesel 2.5%

SPP, Renewable

3.2%

Installed capacity mix by fuel types

Hydropower dams in Quang Nam

Dams and plants

1995 – present: > 800 hydropower plants

118 big plants (>30MW ) (49 operating, 47 under construction, 22 planned) generating 24,893 MW

Impacts and costs

• Lost of forest

• Lost of bio diversity

• Lost of wildlife and fish

• Dead river (no water, run off)

• Lost of Sediment

• CH4 – green house gas

• Downstream impacts (too dry and too floody)

• Risks and Resettlement : Big issues

Risks of leaking and failure

Risks of Earthquake

Damages and worry

• 900 house damaged and borken

• People worry day and night

• People don’t want to work, can’t sleep

• Enterprise hesitate to invest

• People tend to move out

• People don’t want to invest

People evacuated by dam flush

Problems of dam– induced resetlement

A luoi ressetlement

Land for rice field provided for the

ressetled

• No compensation

money for land, just for

asset on land (100 mil

So many social and environment issues

• All the ressetlement have problems with land

shortage and quality

• Companies try to minimise the cost and ignore full

compensation

• Affected people have low voice in raising the issue

Environmental issues

Air, water, land and solid waste pollution

Thi Vai River pollution

• Vedan Company discharging

untreated waste water into the Thi Vai river (5000m3 /day in 10 years), making the river dead

• Nicotex Thanh Thai company

dumped

untreated toxic waste poisoning

the land in Cam Thuy district,

Thanh

Hoa province

The bauxite-alumina project in the Central Highlands =>

The"red" dust waste causing Air pullution, Water Pollution,

fishery pollution (the bauxite site to dump the red sludge,

seriously harmful to the heath of a population of 30 million and

causes agricultural damage to the highland farms)

Mining

Formosa and poison ocean

Formosa apologizes for polluting the ocean but continues to burry the hazardous waste in forest

• “Everyone has the right to live in a

clean environment, and the obligation for environmental protection” (Article 43,

Constitution 2013)

• Very few guildlines/ document under laws mentions how to control the water polution

• The Nicotex company was fined only VND 421 million (USD20,000)

• Vedan company was fined only VND 267

Pollution and Heath

• Only about 60% of the Vietnamese people have access to water that is clean and drinkable

• Many water supply systems in South East & HCM

is under standard

• 80% of diseases in Vietnam are caused by

polluted water resources (MONRE) such as

cholera, giardiasis, cancer, miscarry, inborn

disable, infection (women),

• The red sludge puts health and human lives at risk of being lost or harmed due to air, water and fish pollution.

• The medical statistics prove that prolonged toxicity may cause encephalopathy,

osteoporosis, anemia, and possibly Parkinson diseases

Every day, more projects

• Coal Thermal Plants (Vinh Tan, Long An, Hau Giang…)

• Steel Plant (Hoa Sen Group)

• Paper Mill Plant (Lee & Man)

• Industrial Zones (hundred of factories…)

Forest and land problem

• Forests in

mountainous areas

are being chopped

down for logs

• Coastal mangrove

forests are being

cleared for fish farms

Land confiscations

From 2001 to 2009:

- 1,116,000 ha of agricultural land were taken for

investment projects.

- Every year, 124,000 ha of agricultural land are

transferred to development projects

- More than 50% of confiscated land were at the most densely populated areas of the Red River delta and

Southeast and Mekong delta

Impacts of land confiscation

(MARD survey):

• Land confiscations affected badly 627,000 peasant households, 950,000 laborers & 2,5 million people.

• 53% of households had incomes reduced.

• only 13% of households were able to move to new jobs

• 87% fell into unstable employment or uncertainty in livelihoods

• Landless peasants have been on increase and found difficulties in seeking new jobs

• Every one hectare of rice land confiscated, 15 to 20 rural laborers will become unemployment

Think for next step

• Environment in transition

• People and environment in

climate change context

• New form of poverty, who are

the poor, the vulnerable and the