Hydropower is one of the biggest controversies in Vietnam in recent decades because of its adverse environmental and social consequences, especially negative impacts on displaced people who make way for hydropower dam construction. This book explains the controversies related to hydropower development in Vietnam in order to make policy recommendations for equitable and sustainable development. The book focuses on the analysis of emerging issues, such as land acquisition, compensation for losses, displacement and resettlement, support for livelihood development, and benefit sharing from hydropower development. The analysis emphasizes the role of different stakeholders in the decision-making process for hydropower development in Vietnam as a means to find a better governance model.

The Mekong Basin is home to some 70 million people, for whom this great river is a source of livelihoods, the basis for their ecosystems and a foundation of their economies. But the Mekong is also currently undergoing enormous social, economic, and ecological change of which hydropower development is a significant driver. This book provides a basin-wide analysis of political, socio-economic and environmental perspectives of hydropower development in the Mekong Basin. It includes chapters from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Written by regional experts from some of the region's leading research institutions, the book provides an holistic analysis of the shifting socio-political contexts within which hydropower is framed, legitimised and executed. Drawing heavily on political ecologies and political economics to examine the economic, social, political and ecological drivers of hydropower, the book's basin wide approach illuminates how hydropower development, and its benefits and impacts, are linked multilaterally across the basin. The research in the book is derived from empirical research conducted from 2012-2013 as part of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food's Mekong programme.

The Trung Son dam is a medium-sized hydropower dam (260 megawatts) that was developed with the aim of achieving social and environmental sustainability. Experience gained from the Trung Son Hydropower Project can provide relevant information for dam projects of a similar size. This report is the result of a knowledge-sharing exercise conducted at the end of 2019 by the World Bank with Trung Son Hydropower Company Limited (TSHPCo) participation. The project benefitted from a decision-making process based on an adaptive management principle, defined by a framework of measures and implementation process. Detailed activities can evolve if they remained consistent with this framework. Experience gained from the Trung Son Hydropower Project demonstrates how relocation evolved, requiring continuous negotiations and engagement of all stakeholders to deal with unexpected problems. The critical management of downstream impacts during reservoir impoundment requires mitigation of specific risks. Assessed during the project preparation stage, downstream impacts associated with reservoir impoundment will be minimized through maintenance of a minimum environmental flow. The Trung Son reservoir area is rapidly evolving, with a newly created infrastructure network bringing both opportunities and challenges. To further provide support to local households and their communities, the scope of the corporate social responsibility of TSHPCo will need to be confirmed, and interaction with the local government is likely to continue over a long period of time.

An international river basin is an ecological system, an economic thoroughfare, a geographical area, a font of life and livelihoods, a geopolitical network and, often, a cultural icon. It is also a socio-legal phenomenon. This book is the first detailed study of an international river basin from a socio-legal perspective. The Mekong River Basin, which sustains approximately 70 million people across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, provides a prime example of the socio-legal complexities of governing a transboundary river and its tributaries. The book applies its socio-legal analysis to bring a fresh approach to understanding conflicts surrounding water governance in the Mekong River Basin. The authors describe the wide range of uses being made of legal doctrine and legal argument in ongoing disputes surrounding hydropower development in the Basin, putting to rest lingering caricatures of a single, ‘ASEAN’ way of navigating conflict. They call into question some of the common assumptions concerning the relationship between law and development. The book also sheds light on important questions concerning the global hybridization or crossover of public and private power and its ramifications for water governance. With current debates and looming conflicts over water governance globally, and over shared rivers in particular, these issues could not be more pressing.

This book explores the complex legal, cultural, economic and human rights issues associated with development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) in Vietnam. As in many parts of the world, urban expansion and large-scale infrastructure projects in Vietnam often rely on forced land acquisition, which can result in the involuntary resettlement of households and entire communities. This book examines the adequacy of monetary and in-kind compensation and the support that resettlees need for successful integration into host communities and for sustainable livelihoods and improved well-being. It presents new paradigms and practices that place affected households at the centre of project planning and implementation to fully address the needs of the most vulnerable. This includes women, the elderly, and ethnic minority groups. Bringing together research evidence, practical experience, and insights of distinguished researchers, this book is the first to systematically examine DIDR in Vietnam, a single-party state seeking to balance state interests with the demands of investors and civil society for human rights and participation by affected people. Combining the latest evidence and research findings on development-induced displacement and resettlement in Vietnam with practical experiences in project implementation, this book will be a useful guide for researchers across development, migration, and Southeast Asian Studies, as well as practitioners and policy makers. Its lessons will also be relevant to other countries facing rapid development.