61 urbanization and water management

Keywords Ho Chi Minh City Urbanization Water stress Water resources management Integrated approach Paradigm of water management Introduction Water is the hub of life, and an indispensa

Urbanization and water management in Ho Chi Minh City,

Vietnam-issues, challenges and perspectives

Phu Le Vo

Published online: 29 January 2008

Springer Science+Business Media B.V 2008

Abstract The management of water resources is an

unfinished effort of the international community

Rapid urbanization has transcended the management

capacity of governments in developing countries

Since the renovation policy launched in 1986, Ho Chi

Minh City, Vietnam, has experienced the fastest

urbanization and industrialization process This has

placed severe constraints on the use of water resources

and management capacity of the local government

The abstraction of groundwater has exceeded the

limiting volume (520,000 m3/day) and the annual

drawdown of water table is 2–3 m In addition, the

quality of urban water bodies is increasingly

exacer-bated by a huge volume of untreated industrial and

domestic wastewater These are hampering water

demand, use and the capacity of the municipal

authority in managing water resources The purpose

of this paper is to analyze the impact of urbanization

on water resources Current issues and challenges in

the management practices of water resources are

discussed It will propose a new paradigm of water

management in Ho Chi Minh City

Keywords Ho Chi Minh City
Urbanization
Water stress
Water resources management
Integrated approach
Paradigm of water management

Introduction

Water is the hub of life, and an indispensable part of all terrestrial ecosystems Nevertheless, the world’s population is facing water stress which is unprece-dented in human history (Biswas 1999) This is evidenced by the fact that over 1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean and safe water and 2.4 billion people live without adequate sanitation (Cain and Gleick 2005; Cosgrove and Rjisberman

2000; Gleick1999,2003) It is identified that growing demand for water is one of the major factors threatening the sustainability of human health and ecological integrity in coming years (UN World Water Development Report 2003)

Access to clean and safe water is fundamental for sustaining the development of urbanizing areas Water shortage has become a striking issue of economic development in the Southeast Asian region (Goh

2003) The use and distribution of water resources have been affected by a number of global changes, such as rapid population growth and urbanization, political change and changes in water demand of households, agriculture and industry Thus, growing demand for water associated with the rapid growth of urbanization and population has posed striking

P L Vo (&)

Geographical and Environmental Studies, The University

of Adelaide, Australia, Napier Building, North Tce,

Adelaide 5005, Australia

e-mail: le.vo@adelaide.edu.au

DOI 10.1007/s10708-008-9115-2

challenges in the management practices of water

resources in both the developed and developing world

(Biswas2006; Varis et al.2006)

Since 1986, with the introduction of renovation

policy, Vietnam has experienced rapid economic

development and urbanization growth, coupled with

population boom This has placed a great deal of strain

on the use and management of water resources in many

major urban centers Being the biggest urban

agglom-eration in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City has already

faced water stresses and challenges in water resource

management This paper will discuss these stresses and

challenges in HCMC as a result of urbanization It also

focuses on perspectives of the integrated approach to

water resource management in HCMC, Vietnam

Background to Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Sai Gon, was

founded in 1698 After reunification in 1975, Sai Gon

was renamed Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) HCMC

was originally a small fishing village known as Prey

Nokor (meaning ‘‘forest city’’ or ‘‘forest land’’) The

area that the city now occupies was originally marsh

and swamp land, and was inhabited by the Khmer

people for centuries before the arrival of the first

Vietnamese settlers in 1698 (Vuong Hong Sen1968)

Situated in the South of Vietnam, HCMC is the

country’s biggest and most dynamic city It receives a

lion’s share of national resources and interest in terms of

the huge necessary infrastructure investment and

devel-opment Since 1986, the renovation policy triggered the

so-called ‘industrialization and modernisation’ process

which created momentum and impetus for social

transformation and radical economic development in

Vietnam (O’ Rourke2004) Accordingly, HCMC has

become an important hub for political, economic and

cultural activities (Ha and Wong1999) However, the

city’s rapid annual economic development has burdened

urban services, infrastructure and facilities, such as

traffic, water supply and drainage systems (People’s

Committee of Ho Chi Minh City2002)

Geographical location

HCMC is located from 10100 to 10380 N and from

10620to 106540E Its total land area is approximately

2,095 km2 Its neighbouring provinces include Binh

Duong in the north, Tay Ninh in the northwest, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in the Southeast, and Long An

in the west and southwest (Dan et al 2006; People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City 2006a) Figure1 shows location of Ho Chi Minh City in which shaded areas are districts of HCMC

Precipitation

Situated in the sub-equatorial and tropical zone, HCMC’s climate is governed by a monsoonal regime and seasons clearly divided into rainy and dry Annual average rainfall is about 2,000 mm The rainy season accounts for 80–85% of yearly rainfall High rainfalls occur in June and September The dry season is from November to April, and the wet weather lasts from May to October (People’s Com-mittee of Ho Chi Minh City 2002,2006a)

However, seasonal fluctuations in annual precipi-tation result in variation of water quantity and quality

in Vietnam’s major urban centres, particularly in HCMC Generally, Vietnam’s rainfall is highly dis-tributed in a short period of the year and causes water shortages and floods (Malano et al 1999) Further-more, the intensive industrialisation has created serious challenges for meeting agricultural, industrial and domestic water needs For sustainable urban development in HCMC, the challenge is not only how

to match available resources to growing demand among water users, but also to manage and use it efficiently Therefore, water shortages and stress in HCMC is due not only to a lack of water resource, but also to a lack of effective management and integrated approaches Developing an integrated approach to the use and management of water resources is imperative

to cope with future challenging urban issues

Social and economic growth

Since the renovation policy launched in 1986, HCMC has witnessed remarkable economic growth, evi-denced by GDP growth rate in 2004 reaching 11.6% and 18.4% in comparison with the whole country (People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City 2006b) Despite accounting for only 0.6% of Vietnam’s total area and 6.6% of the country’s total population, HCMC made an important contribution to Vietnam’s

GDP in 2000 Not surprisingly, HCMC is one of the

most concentrated urban populations in the world

(Drakakis-Smith2000) and one of the most dynamic

urbanized areas in the Southeast Asian region (Bolay

et al.1997) Table1summarizes annual GDP growth

of HCMC 2001–2005 (People’s Committee of Ho Chi

Minh City2006b)

The impacts of urbanization on water resources

in Ho Chi Minh City

Urbanization, on the other hand, is responsible for a wide range of environmental consequences, including water resource deterioration, inadequate drinking water and sanitation, coupled with health problems Fig 1 Map of Ho Chi Minh City Source: Dan et al ( 2007 )

from water-related diseases, air pollution and solid

waste management (Marcotullio 2003; Roberts and

Kanaley2006)

HCMC has faced water challenges to sustainable

urban development, including groundwater depletion,

surface water pollution and inadequate clean water

provision for urban dwellers (Asia Times2000) The

city’s total water demand is projected to triple in 2020

as increase in domestic and industrial consumption

(Dan et al.2006; Nga2006) In addition, water quality

has been diminished by industrial and domestic

wastewater (Duc and Truong2003; O’ Rourke2004;

Tenenbaum1996) The rate of extraction of

ground-water is excessive at an alarming level (Dan et al

2006; People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City

2002)

Urbanization trend

Because the strength of economic growth, HCMC has

attracted an increase in the number of migrants from

rural areas (Gubry and Le 2002) After reunification

in 1975, the demography and the population pattern

of HCMC have dramatically changed Its population

has doubled over the last 25 years from 2.5 million in

1975 to 5.17 million people in 2000 By 2004, the population figure has accelerated to 6.1 million people, accounting for 7% of the country’s population in which 5.2 million inhabitants live in urban Districts and 0.9 million people in outlying Districts (Ho Chi Minh City Statistical Office 2005; People’s Committee of

Ho Chi Minh City2006c)

Furthermore, the UN Population Report (2001 revision) estimated that the urban population of HCMC will reach 6.2 million people by 2015 with a rate of urban growth of 2% (United Nations Popula-tion Division 2002) However, by 2005, its urban population exceeded 6.2 million (Ho Chi Minh City Statistical Office 2007), 10 years earlier than the United Nations prediction (see Fig.2) This will result

in pressures on urban services and the environment Most commonly, securing adequate water sources, ensuring basic human needs and managing water resources will pose a formidable challenge to the city government (Table2)

Urban water demand

The rapid economic growth and urban expansion have resulted in growing water demand in HCMC Total

Table 1 Economic growth

of Ho Chi Minh City,

2001–2005

Source: People’s

Committee of Ho Chi Minh

City ( 2006b )

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

GDP growth (in comparison with the whole country’s GDP, %)

17.6 18.0 18.4 18.5 20.2 Total industrial production (in comparison with the whole

country, %)

29.4 29.6 29.4 28.8 27.9

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Year

Fig 2 Evolution of urban

population growth in

HCMC, 1975–2010.

Source: This was compiled

by the author from different

cited sources

water demand for domestic and industrial purposes in

2006 was 1.75 million m3, and was estimated to be

3.6 million m3in 2020 (Nga2006) The major water

sectors are industry, households and services

The largest component of HCMC’s water supply

sources comes from upstream sources of the Sai

Gon-Dong Nai river system The proportion of supply

from this river system has increased significantly

since 2003 The ratio of river and groundwater source

in HCMC’s water supply before and after 2003 is

presented in Fig.3 The Sai Gon Water Supply

Company (SAWACO) is a state-owned enterprise

and responsible for exploitation, purification and

distribution of water in HCMC The 2006 capacity of

the piped water was 1,236,000 m3/day, and will be

upgraded to 2,000,000 m3/day in 2010 to meet the

growing urban population and water demand (Saigon

Water Supply Company-SAWACO2007)

The percentage of water coverage (supply) in

HCMC increased from 52% in 1997 (McIntosh and

Yn˜iguez1997) to 84% in 2004 (Andrews and Yn˜iguez

2004) However, the proportion of urban households connected to the main water supply system is still low

It is estimated that 47% of the city’s dwellers have access to reticulated water supply systems from the public utility, 34% of households have access to wells and 19% have to buy water from small private water providers (Dardenne2006)

McIntosh (2003) showed that when sampling the number of households using water from small scale water providers (SSWPs), 61% of these SSWPs are resellers (who have connections from the Sai Gon Water Supply Company-SAWACO, and provide service to an average of 3–5 households in the neighbourhood), 19% of SSWPs are tanker operators (who access water from SAWACO), 11% of SSMPs provide water via piped systems and the remaining 9% provide bottled water Urban water coverage, availability, consumption and sewerage access in HCMC in comparison with other Southeast Asian cities are presented in Table3

It is clear that the acceleration of urbanization in HCMC has a profound affect on water resources in terms of quantity and quality In the context of water supply, rapid urbanization entails a wide array of economic, social and environmental aspects (Jayasuriya and Ho2006) Table4summarizes water supply issues and related consequences

Water resource challenges for Ho Chi Minh City

HCMC is geographically situated in a well-watered region with abundant swamps and marshes It has been maintained by abundant surface and subsurface water: surface water (the Sai Gon-Dong Nai river system), groundwater and rainwater (Dan et al.2007;

Table 2 Urbanization

trend in selected Southeast

Asian countries

Source: Roberts and

Kanaley ( 2006 )

Urban population

in 2005 (million)

Urban proportion (%) Estimated increase in urban population

2005 Estimated

2030

2005–2030 (million)

2005–2030 (%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Proportion of Water Supply in HCMC

Before 2003 After 2003

Fig 3 Proportion of water supply sources in Ho Chi Minh

City Source: People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City ( 2002 )

People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City 2002;

Water and Sanitary Engineering Company 2 (WASE)

2001)

However, HCMC typifies the paradox of water

availability as it has too much water in the wet season,

but too little during the dry season, associated with

escalating demand and needs (Vo and Williams2006)

HCMC’s remarkable economic development over the past two decades, albeit creating many positive impacts and opportunities, has had adverse impacts

on the use of natural resources and environmental quality (O’ Rourke 2004) Thus, the rapid economic growth has resulted in unrelenting pressure on water resource use and management This pressure includes

Table 3 Water in selected Southeast Asian Cities

Bangkoka Ho Chi Minh City Jakarta Kuala

Lumpur

Manila Phnom

Penh

Singaporea Vientiane

Production/population

(m 3 /d/c)

Water availability (h/day) 24 18 (24) 22 (18) 24 (24) 21 (17) 24 (12) 24 12 (24) Consumption/capita

(l/capita/day)

(135)

132 (146) 127

(202)

Sources: Andrews and Yn˜iguez ( 2004 );aMcIntosh et al ( 1997 )

Notes: Data in brackets are sourced in 1997; n.a = Not available

Table 4 Water supply issues and consequences

Illegal groundwater

abstraction

Inefficient use of resources; Health risks for households and

industrial users in unregulated manner;

Depletion of groundwater sources;

High marginal cost for end users.

Inequities in water access Potential disruption of

groundwater flows; Increased risks of subsidence Inadequate network

coverage

Users must buy water at high rates from vendors or small scale water providers.

Health risks associated with households using supply sources either partially or poorly treated.

Encourages illegal unregulated groundwater withdrawal; Unlicensed connections Poor (antiquated) water

supply infrastructure

Inefficient use of resources; Health risks for domestic users; Increase in contamination by

corrosion, leakages, pollutants from sewer spills High repair and maintenance

cost;

Safety issues;

Unreliable supply affecting industrial activities.

Intermittent supply.

Inadequate infrastructure

investment and

ineffective water

pricing

Inefficient recovery cost and inequitable user charges.

Low public awareness of water conservation;

Future generations will face lower supply security.

Intermittent supply Weakening economic activities; Potential health risks Encourages illegal local

groundwater abstraction Public health cost.

Unaccounted For Water Increased cost for water

supplied

Potential health risks;

Resulting in public awareness

‘‘waste is acceptable’’.

Source: Jayasuriya and Ho ( 2006 )

the degradation of surface supplies and the depletion

of aquifers Additionally, water demand, accelerated

by intensified expansion of industrial activities, has

caused many incidences of water pollution (Asia

Times2000; Duc and Truong2003; O’ Rourke2004)

The plunge of groundwater level is observed in

outlying districts in HCMC where water tables have

fallen up to 5 m during the last 5 years (Dan et al

2006)

Depletion and degradation of groundwater

Groundwater is one of three main sources of water

supply for social development in HCMC This aquifer

source will continue to play a crucial role in the city’s

water supply in the future (Water and Sanitary

Engineering Company 2 (WASE) 2001) However,

the alarming diminution of groundwater is becoming

apparent to water managers due to overabstraction

The overabstraction of groundwater is driven by the

increasing water demands associated with population

growth and urban expansion It is estimated that the

current total abstraction volume, 520,000 m3/day has

exceeded the limiting volume (People’s Committee of

Ho Chi Minh City 2002) While the total recharge

volume is only one-third of the extraction rate due to

accelerated growth of impermeable urban surfaces

and hydrological changes associated with rapid

urbanization (MONRE 2006a) Figure4 shows that

the extraction volume of groundwater has increased

with time in HCMC

It is estimated that the annual average drawdown

of the water table in HCMC is 2–3 m between 2001

and 2006 (MONRE2006a) The annual drawdown of

water table in high bores density is presented in

Table5 (Dan et al 2007) More importantly, the

overabstraction from aquifer sources has resulted in

further lowering of the water table in suburban

districts The water table in Thu Duc and Go Vap,

outlying Districts, has dropped 4–5 m during the last

5 years (Dan et al.2006)

Furthermore, rapid urban expansion and

popula-tion growth propelled the accelerapopula-tion of groundwater

extraction and drawdown of water level A report by

the World Bank and its partner agencies also stated

that the decline of the groundwater table in HCMC is

accelerating because of the overdraft of extraction

volume (World Bank et al 2003) Thus, this city is

facing the risk of depletion and environmental consequences of this incidence, including salt intru-sion, aquifer pollution and land subsidence (MONRE 2006a)

It is claimed that urban water supply service can only satisfy 77% of urban residents with 50–100 l/person/day and 21% of suburban dwellers with 20–40 l/person/day (People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City 2002) This insufficient water supply, therefore, has resulted in an enormous number of private wells having been bored over urban districts

to satisfy many domestic purposes (MONRE2006b) Groundwater not only suffers from the over with-drawal but its quality is also being worsened from both point and non-point sources Xuan (2001) stressed that the management and protection of aquifers is a pressing task for HCMC He also claimed that the quality of groundwater is threatened by major con-taminant sources, including industrial wastewater impoundment, septic tank systems, leachate from landfills and polluted water wells In addition, water

at the depth from -5 to -10 m is unusable for domestic purposes because of bad odour, the concen-tration of bacteria, nitrate (NO3-), nitrite (NO2-) and ammonia (NH4 ) has exceeded Vietnamese standard levels The presence of several contaminants was identified at depths between -30 and -40 m, includ-ing organic and inorganic substances Salt intrusion was also recorded in groundwater samples along the Sai Gon river, the Vam Thuat river and the Ben Cat canal (Sang and Loan2001)

Clearly, urbanization has posed threats on ground-water sources and challenge in the management practices It is agreed that the rapid expansion of urban areas, industrial zones associated with the over Fig 4 Groundwater extraction with time in Ho Chi Minh City Source: Dan et al ( 2006 )

abstraction are the causes of groundwater depletion

and quality degradation (DONRE2005, p 25)

Pollution of surface water sources

HCMC is the home of about 30,000 small and

medium scale enterprises and more than 800 large

scale factories from export processing zones (EPZs)

and industrial parks (IPs) (People’s Committee of Ho

Chi Minh City2002) However, most of them are not

equipped with any wastewater treatment facilities

(Duc and Truong2003; O’ Rourke2004) This huge

number of industries has generated 260 tons of solid

wastes daily including 25 tons/day of hazardous

wastes (People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City

2002) In addition, it is estimated that industrial

wastewater effluent in HCMC accounts for 20–30% of

the total flows in Vietnam’s river systems The major

industrial contributions to water pollution are oil

refining and chemical and food processing industries

(ADB 2000) These tremendous amount of solid

wastes and wastewater has caused serious water

pollution (O’ Rourke2004; Tenenbaum1996)

The deterioration of water quality in the Sai

Gon-Dong Nai river system is increasing at an alarming level

It was estimated that about 200,000 m3of industrial

wastewater, 17,000 m3of hospital effluent is discharged

into the Sai Gon-Dong Nai river daily (Asia Times2000;

HEPA2006) However, it is identified that only 40% of this wastewater is treated (HEPA 2006) The figure

of pollution was aggravated starkly as over 50 tonnes of dead fish were found upstream in the Dong Nai river in April 2000 (Duc and Truong2003)

Many urban canals and creeks have been heavily polluted and increasingly serve as sinks for untreated domestic sewage and industrial wastewater (Hansen and Phan 2005; Duc and Truong 2003; MONRE

HCMC are high density population and industrial polluting areas Unfortunately, industrial and domes-tic wastewater is directly released into watercourses and canal systems without treatment or with inade-quate treatment (Douglas 2005; Duc and Truong

2003; O’ Rourke2004)

Furthermore, the situation of canal systems is increasingly aggravated during the wet weather as the canals receive additional contaminated flows from urban and agricultural runoff Not surprisingly, high concentrations of PCBs, DDT and heavy metals were found in canal sediments of HCMC (Phuong et al

1998; Tenenbaum1996)

Fragmentation of management practices

It is emphasized that the rapid urban expansion in the developing world has exceeded the capabilities of the

Table 5 Drawdown of water table at monitoring stations in high well density areas

Binh Chanh Dist Binh Tan Dist Phu Nhuan Dist District 11 District 12

The decline of water table was caused by industrial and domestic activities in areas: Binh Hung (Binh Chanh district), Tan Tao (Binh Tan district—newly formed district), Tan Son Nhat (Phu Nhuan district), Phu Tho (District 11) and Tan Chanh Hiep (District 12)

governmental management practices of water

resources in terms of efficiency, equity and

sustain-ability (Biswas 2006) Therefore, the future major

challenges in the water sector of developing nations

include improper planning, inadequate management

practices and the lack of political involvement

It is commonly said that urban managers in

developing countries often neglect their

responsibil-ities for environmental concerns (Drakakis-Smith

1996) In addition, many urban environmental

prob-lems in the developing world are closely linked with

water issues which are due to the lack of political

will:

In most cities, poorer groups’ lack of piped

water supplies is not the result of a shortage of

fresh water resources but the result of

govern-ments’ refusal to give a higher priority to water

supply… A failure of governance underlies

most environmental problems (Hardoy et al

2001, p 382)

Within the context of HCMC, the causes of the

city’s water resource problems are rooted in

inade-quate institutional frameworks of the urban sector,

inappropriate institutional arrangements and

insuffi-cient mechanisms in the water sector

One of the major problems in managing water

resources in HCMC was the lack of sectoral

cooper-ation and clear management roles between agencies

Most the poor management practices of water

resources can be traced to overlapping responsibilities

and vague obligations between relevant authorities

and sectors (Duc and Truong 2003) This may have

resulted from a lack of an overarching local body

which can coordinate and integrate the plans and

programs of the sub-sector agencies

In fact, the city government has recently

reorga-nized the local agency for water resources management

in accordance with the newly government body at

national level Accordingly, Department of Natural

Resources and Environment (DONRE) is responsible

for the management of environment and natural

resources, in which water resources management is

an integral part of its duties and functions DORNE is a

new organisation established to take over

responsibil-ity for water resources management from the

Department of Agricultural and Rural Development

(DARD) Within DONRE, Environmental

Manage-ment Division (EMD), Office of Mineral & Water

Resource Management (OMWRM) and HCMC Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (HEPA) are three sub-departments involving the management of water resources in terms of quantity and quality However, DONRE still consists of three subordinate divisions that lack collaboration, accountability and transpar-ency This can be attributed to a number of factors including institutional weakness, inadequate mecha-nism, a lack of funds, poorly trained staff and lack of political influence on environmental authorities Furthermore, HCMC’s water resources are heavily polluted by organic wastes and coliform, particularly

in the dry season The situation is likely to accelerate because of the rapid industrial growth and inadequate control mechanisms (DONRE 2005) Water quality

in many urban receiving bodies is also exacerbated

by fragmented legal frameworks and inadequate regulations (Duc and Truong 2003)

Perspectives of water resource management

Institutional and legal framework

Since 1993, the Vietnamese government has intro-duced an overarching Law on Environment Protection, standards on air and water quality, decrees on environmental fines and enforcement, and on the implementation of environmental impact assessment,

as well as circulating directives on environmental protection (O’ Rourke2004)

For the management of water resources, the most important institutional framework is the Law on Water Resources (LWR), which was enacted in May

1998, and became effective in 1999 (ADB 2000; Hansen and Phan2005) The objective of the LWR is

to provide for the management, protection, exploita-tion and use of water resources and to protect, combat and overcome the harmful effects of water The LWR confirms that ownership of water resources is vested

in the Vietnamese people under the unified manage-ment of the State (Bennie Black and Veatch 2004; Hansen and Phan2005)

More importantly, the LWR establishes effective institutions and instruments for the comprehensive management practices of water resources, including: (i) National Water Resources Council (NWRC), a high-level advisory body, which comprises high

level decision-makers and officers with many

duties and responsibilities An initial key task of

this Council is to commission and supervise a

National Water Resource Strategy and Action

Plan It also plays an important role in conflict

resolution;

(ii) River Basin Organisations for water resources

planning on the basis of major river basins such

as the Red River Basin in the North, the Sai

Gon-Dong Nai river basin in the South;

(iii) A system of water allocation through licenses

and water rights;

(iv) A system of wastewater discharge permits for

key water users; and

(v) An inspection system for the safety of dams and

other hydraulic works

Source: (ADB 2000, Hansen and Phan 2005)

The Ministry of Agricultural and Rural

Develop-ment (MARD) was designated as the key governDevelop-ment

representative to perform the role of water resources

management (Hansen and Phan 2005) However,

after 2002, the main function in the management of

water resources in MARD was taken over by the new

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

(MONRE) The service function of irrigation and rural

water supply still remains with MARD (Hansen and

Phan 2005; World Bank et al.2003) In accordance

with the new Ministry, provincial and municipal

Departments of Natural Resources and Environment

(DONRE) have been set up in 2002

Accordingly, DONRE of HCMC was established

and a number of legal frameworks and legislation on

water resources in HCMC were also enacted The

structure of management and legal frameworks of

water resources in HCMC are described in Tables6

and7, respectively

Analysis of management practices

Recently, the strategy of environmental management

up to 2010 has identified two major water objectives,

include: (i) protecting the groundwater resource

through reduction of the abstraction rates; (ii)

improving the quality of surface water upstream of

the Sai Gon-Dong Nai river basin (People’s

Com-mittee of Ho Chi Minh City 2002) However, this

proposed strategy is unlikely to turn the current water

challenges around as it still follows a piecemeal approach and lacks integration

To formulate appropriate strategies and policy for water resources management in HCMC, it is neces-sary to analyze existing management practices in terms of strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of a wide range factors upon which future formulation and directions of water policy and strategy depend: institutional capacity, legal arrange-ments, inter-sectoral cooperation, human resource and financial capacity The comprehensive analysis

of the management practices of water resources in HCMC is summarized in Table 8

It is obviously argued that inadequate institutional arrangement and fragmentation of the management practices are critical underlying causes of water problems in HCMC Therefore, the future manage-ment approach to water resources in HCMC should be formulated in a comprehensive manner of rethinking and reshaping the paradigm of water management

Water management paradigm

Upon the SWOT analysis, fragmentation of the management practices embodies in the majority of weakness in governance, management and mecha-nism issues The institutional weakness has resulted

in inadequate synergy of water-related government agencies and existing water programs As urbani-zation and industrialiurbani-zation proceed, associated with growing water demand, HCMC will continue to face water stress (shortage, degradation and deple-tion) and management constraints Therefore, the future strategy and policy of water resources in HCMC should be shifted to a new approach which integrates institutional, social, economic and envi-ronmental aspects Figure 5 shows a paradigm shift

to the management practices of water resources in HCMC

Re-structuring water resource management body

One of the institutional weaknesses in water resources management in the developing world is the lack of an apex body which is responsible for the