The Evolution of Water Management in the Red River Delta of Vietnam and a Case of Chuc Son, Hanoi City

Abstract

For more than 2000 year, the Red River Delta has been created by (and always tied to) the regime of the Red River. The tradition of building the rive dike system in the Red River Delta has a very long interesting history. Historically, in the feudal period, the dike system was controlled and maintained by the local peasantry which revealed an understanding about the logics of the dynamics of this delta and its landscape. Humans had tamed the Red River’s water regime with quite low techniques, simple means, massive human endeavor and ingeniousness. Over time, acquired both indigenous and imported knowledge and new techniques, water management in the Red River Delta has become more refined and more complicated. However, the scope and speed of a swift urbanization nowadays, in combination of the environmental crises, predicted consequences of climate change as well as uncontrollable up-steam river constructions by neighbouring countries, has heralded a new era that demands a radical rethinking of water management. The paper is structured in three main parts. It firstly reviews the Red River Delta’s historical water management in order to understand the broader context and eventually draw lessons. Secondly, it discusses contemporary challenges in terms of water management for Vietnam in light of unprecedented modernization and urbanization. The article concludes with the case of Chuc Son, an area in the southern region of the Day River, which is an important tributary of the Red River and significant in terms of the capital city’s westward expansion.