In the “Resilient Cities 2016 – 7th Annual Global Forum on Urban Resilience and Adaptation” organized by Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) and the City of Bonn, on 7^th July, the “Reality Check” workshop  provided a valuable opportunity for representatives from Da Nang and Can Tho cities of Viet Nam to share their climate resilient issues, how they are handling them and what the challenges and obstacles are. The workshop, which was sponsored by International Development Research Centre- IDRC Canada, helped Viet Nam city representatives to get feedback and comments, and learn from participants such as researchers from Africa, the Middle East, the United States, Europe and from their peer cities in South East Asia such as Bangkok, Thailand and Santa Rosa, Philippines.

The interactive manner of the workshop allowed fruitful two-way discussion between the Vietnamese representatives and other participants. Can Tho brought to the workshop their water management issues in the context of facing the most severe drought and saline intrusion in nearly a century, which is seriously impacting the city and the surrounding agricultural areas. Disaster management in urban planning was the key focus for the Da Nang representatives.

The feedback and suggestions for the Can Tho representatives from workshop included those with “direct to immediate need, long term and regional management measures regarding water management in Can Tho under changing climate which help us to see our problems from international and different perspectives” – said the Can Tho representative. The immediate solution suggested for land subsidence is to switch from ground water to surface water. Good practice of Volta river basin management in Africa can be a lesson for Mekong regional transboundary water management in the long term. That Volta Agreement provides a win-win solution and a framework for bilateral negotiation between members.

The Da Nang discussion focused on integrated disaster management that addressed the city’s gaps and weakness.  The main emerging points for Da Nang to take home from the discussion were disaster insurance, strengthening collaboration between researchers and policy makers and advanced early warning system for better community preparedness.  Beside the workshop, a number of side events had been organized. One of the representatives from Da Nang—Mr. Quy Phan, gave his thoughts regarding city resilient roadmap. Watch the video below:

(By Quynh Anh – National Institute for Science and Technology Policy and Strategic Studies, Ministry of Science and Technology)