The dimensions of flooding in the Mekong delta : A struggle in a changing climate

Sammanfattning: Climate change and a changing flood pattern create urgent issues for low-lying land suchas the Vietnamese Mekong delta. Harmful levels of flooding, drought and extreme weatherconditions are increasingly striking rural communities in the delta. Millions of peopleliving in the area are very poor and the vulnerability is high to a change in the floodingpattern. Political incentives, programs and policies have been introduced in order to adaptto the changes but the complex issues are hard to tackle.This study tries to understand the impact that flooding pattern has in the Mekong delta areaand what the communities do to adopt do their new situation, both on a top downperspective and local coping strategies within the communities. The SRL (SustainableRural Livelihood) approach has been used to analyze the conditions. It gives a holisticperspective on societies and highlights that there are several dimensions to a problem. Anumber of interviews with women and men working on different levels within the field ofclimate adaption, climate change, rural development, environment and migration werecompleted.The findings show that the Vietnamese Government has tried to solve the situation throughlaws and policies but this method has shown not to be enough. The communities haveorganized ways of dealing with their own problems but issues are severe and the regionalco-operations need to be dealt with seriously. When conditions worsen, what is being donetoday is not enough to save The Mekong delta or its people.