Partners for Water MAR pilot featuring at Dutch-Vietnamese session on nature-based solutions

On March 19, the Dutch economic mission to Vietnam focusing on water and logistics, headed by the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Mr. Mark Harbers, convened a thematic session on nature-based solutions (NbS) in Hanoi. He emphasized that green solutions should be used wherever possible and could be combined with grey solutions when necessary. Vice Minister of MONRE, Mr. Le Cong Thanh, also welcomed all participants and highlighted the good cooperation.

The definition of NbS and examples from Vietnam were presented by Mr. Andrew Wyatt (IUCN) followed by an overview of the current legal framework in Vietnam from Mr. Koos Neefjes. He highlighted that many of the Vietnamese strategies make explicit references to NbS, but that the laws only have implicit references and that financing of NbS is often mainly via international grants.

Mr. Romano Radjkoemar (VEI) then presented Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) as a local solution to water resource issues in the Mekong Delta with two pilot examples: (1) recharge to unconfined sand dune aquifers as conducted by the FAME project in Tra Vinh province and (2) recharge to deeper confined aquifers as currently implemented by the Partners for Water project in Nga Bay, Hau Giang province in cooperation with the CRMGG project.

Opening remarks by Mr. Mark Harbers (Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management)

Opening remarks by Mr. Le Cong Thanh (Vice Minister of MONRE)

Setting the scene by Andrew Wyatt (IUCN)

Romano Radjkoemar (VEI) presenting the Partners for Water MAR pilot