On March 22, 2023, the Dien Bien Provincial People’s Committee and the French Development Agency (AFD) in Vietnam jointly organized the Technical Assistance Component Kickoff Workshop of the Multi-disaster management in Nam Rom river basin to protect people, respond to climate change and socio-economic development, Dien Bien province in Dien Bien Phu city. This component - Technical Assistance of this project is funded by the European Union (EU) through the Water and Natural Resources Management (WARM) Facility. The purpose of the WARM Facility is to help strengthen Vietnam's resilience to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters.

Overview of the workshop

The workshop was attended by leaders of Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee, French Development Agency (AFD) delegation, the Project Management Unit of Rural and Agricultural Works of Dien Bien Province (PMU) and the Technical Assistance (TA) consulting team. The workshop agenda introduced the TA Component and reports on some of the activities carried out by the TA Consultant joint venture of Groupe Huit - Institute of Ecology and Works
Protection - Key Laboratory on Coastal Engineering.

The Multi-disaster management in Nam Rom river basin to protect people, respond to climate change and socio-economic development, Dien Bien province was approved by the Prime Minister in investment policy in Decision 170/QD-TTg, dated February 4, 2021. Total project implementation fund is over 981 billion VND, of which ODA loan from AFD is 665.5 billion VND (24.65 million Euro); counterpart capital is 275,028 billion VND (10.19 million Euro) and EU grant capital is 40.5 billion VND (1.5 million Euro).

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Lo Van Tien, Deputy Chairman of Dien Bien provincial people’s committee stated: “According to the master plan, by 2030, Dien Bien Phu city will become a modern civilized city, the center of economic development, service and tourism of the whole province. However, the city's livelihood, production, and environmental landscape are heavily influenced by the increasing risks of natural disasters from the Nam Rom river basin. The total
annual damage caused by natural disasters is up to VND 250 billion (accounting for 2% of the province’s GRDP). According to the climate change scenario, in addition to the risk of heavy
rain, flash floods, landslides, landslides, river bank erosion, flood, and in the dry season there will be drought and lack of water. With the current status of many river sections being eroded, the downstream area is flooded, the river bed is narrowed, the flow circulation being not sufficient and heavily polluted due to the speed of urbanization, as well as domestic and production activities, environmental issues and natural disaster risks will be constant threats to the people’s daily life and production in Dien Bien Phu city”.

Mr Lo Van Tien, Deputy Chairman of Dien Bien provincial people’s committee

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Hiep, Director of the PMU: “After fully completing the project components, the Nam Rom river section passing through Dien Bien Phu city will become multi-functional in flood regulation and drainage, water storage, reducing urban flood, protecting river banks against erosion, and creating urban landscapes. For the agricultural sector, the Nam Rom river basin will contribute to enhancing the water supply capacity for agricultural production in an area of over 18 thousand hectares, supplementing surface water and groundwater, increasing the capacity of supplying domestic water with capacity of 2,000m 3 /day for people in the basin, and industrial water supply for local factories”.

According to Mr. Hervé Conan, Director of AFD in Vietnam: “Given the increasingly unusual and negative changes of climate change and the complex characteristics of the Nam Rom River - a tributary of the Mekong River, the ultimate goal of the project is to brings a comprehensive multi-disaster risk management solution, towards sustainable development for Dien Bien Phu
city and Nam Rom river basin. To achieve this, in addition to structural measures, it is necessary to improve the flood risk prevention and management capacity with the support of decision-making tools. On the other hand, public communication needs to be strengthened through the technical assistance consulting component which is the key factor to the success of the project”.

Mr. Hervé Conan, Director of AFD in Vietnam

With the general orientation of integrated management of the Nam Rom river basin based on multi-disaster risk management, in order to minimize impacts, adapt to climate change, and enhance local socio-economic development, the Multi-disaster management in Nam Rom river basin project has four specific objectives: (i) Reduce damage caused by natural disasters in Nam Rom river basin, protect over 40,000 residents in wards and communes of Dien Bien Phu
city and Dien Bien district, stabilize agricultural production, develop socio-economic; (ii) Improve Nam Rom riverbed in the section through Dien Bien Phu city by reinforced embankments, riverbed dredging to improve drainage, prevent landslides, reduce flooding, protect the environment, and develop urban infrastructure (iii) Construct river dams to increase flow regulation capacity during dry season, support water supply, improve the environment (iv) Strengthen climate change resilience and water resource management in the Nam Rom river basin through non-structural items.

Part of the workshop

In 2021-2028, with over VND 981 billion of project funding, Dien Bien province will implement 2 components of the project. Specifically, component 1 (construction component) includes: construction of anti-erosion embankments on both banks of Nam Rom river with a total length of 14.7 km; flow extension and dredging some river sections; and dam construction. Component 2 (non-structural component), includes: project management capacity building, monitoring system development; multi-disaster management and climate change adaptation capacity building; risk management knowledge dissemination through risk and vulnerability mapping as well as hydrological regime statistical analysis; Information and communication activities on natural disaster prevention and climate change adaptation.

On September 30, 2021, the People's Committee of Dien Bien province issued Decision No. 1770/QD-UBND approving the Multi-disaster management in Nam Rom river basin to protect people, respond to climate change and socio-economic development in Dien Bien province; assigned the PMU as the investor to implement the project.

Carrying out the assigned tasks, up to now the PMU has coordinated with related agencies to complete most of the procurement procedures for the project construction packages, in which bidding package no. 6 and no. 7 on dredging the Nam Rom riverbed have been completed and signed. In the meeting on March 22, the TA consultant also reported on the activities to support the PMU, including assisting in the preparation of Social Environment and Resettlement documents according to regulations as conditions for groundbreaking of package no. 6 and 7 Some project components are prioritized to be completed in time for the 70th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu campaign and 30 years of AFD in Vietnam which will be held in 2024. Simultaneously, the TA Consultant is also actively working with relevant departments to build a model and decision support system to support disaster, flood risk and urban flood management and administration. This system, when completed, is expected to improve disaster response capacity and reduce risks from water-related disasters for communities in Dien Bien Phu city and Dien Bien district.

Summary of the workshop