The World Bank (WB) has decided to finance USD25 million for investment in Vietnam to help better management of water resources and climate risks in the Mekong Delta region.

WB funding to help improve water resource management in Lower Mekong Basin

The funding comes from the International Development Association (IDA), the WB’s concessional lending arm for low-income countries.

The funds will go to the Integrated Water Resources Management Project – Phase 2, which is expected to help realise the programme of integrated water resource management in the Lower Mekong Basin. The programme was aimed to foster sustainable economic, social and environmental development by developing the capacity of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam National Mekong Committee and other relevant agencies.

The project is the second part of a four-phase programme, which identifies and helps to establish projects that integrated water resources management practices in the Lower Mekong basin at the regional, national, and sub-national levels.

The project will provide support for institutional development of integrated water resource management in Vietnam in the Sesan-Srepok Basin.

It will help establish a Water Resources Monitoring Network at Vietnam’s borders both in the areas nearing Cambodia and Laos in the Lower Mekong and a water resource information systems for the Vietnamese part of the Lower Mekong.

The hydro-meteorological information network and the flood forecasting and warning system in the Central Highlands will be strengthened as well.