**1. Introduction**

36 Novel Approaches and Their Applications in Risk Assessment

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A lot of countries worldwide suffer from emerging water related problems. Droughts, floods and water contamination are the most pressing issues. According to the United Nations (UN, 2008), in 2008 over 880 million people of the developing world's population were without access to safe drinking water and over 2.5 billion lacked adequate sanitation.

Considering a rapid global change driven by climate, land use and demographic changes, one of the most important tasks of the global community is to find means of using and protecting natural resources in a responsible way in order to support a holistic and sustainable development. The integrated approaches of the international R&D projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) are helping to understand, interpret and solve problems in the water sector.

One specific program in this framework is called "Integrated Water Resources Management" (IWRM). The primary focus of the program is to establish cooperation between science, administration and economy between Germany and foreign countries. The R&D projects in the program should develop management concepts and implement action plans in the water sector in cooperation with partners of the project regions. Another task is the contribution of adapted water related technologies and the transfer of know-how.

Vietnam is one of the model regions of the funding program. Since 2007, the German-Vietnamese joint R&D project Integrated Water Resources Management in Vietnam (IWRM-Vietnam) funded by the BMBF is developing methods and technologies adapted to Vietnamese conditions.

The institute of Environmental Engineering and Ecology (eE+E) at the Ruhr University Bochum (Prof. Dr. Harro Stolpe) coordinates the R&D project IWRM-Vietnam and

Planning and Decision Support Tools for IWRM on River Basin Level in the Southeast-Asian

sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment" (GWP, 2000).

will be another important legal basis of IWRM in Vietnam.

**3. Background** 

**3.1 IWRM** 

1993).

1993).

**3.2 Administration/laws** 

Region on the Example of Vietnam – Tools for Water Quantity and Quality Risk Assessment 39

Since the International Conference on Water and the Environment, hosted in Dublin, and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, hosted in Rio de Janeiro (both in 1992), IWRM finds a stronger consideration worldwide. According to the Global Water Partnership (GWP), IWRM is "a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the

According to the Agenda 21 "Integrated Water Resources Management" is based on the perception of water as an integral part of an ecosystem, a natural resource and a social and economic good, whose quantity and quality determine the nature of its utilization. Water resources have to be protected, taking into account the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and the perenniality of the resource, in order to satisfy and reconcile needs for water in human activities. In developing and using water resources priority has to be given to the satisfaction of basic needs and the safeguarding of ecosystems" (UNCED,

The overall objective is "to satisfy the freshwater needs of all countries for their sustainable development". Additionally, IWRM should include "the integration of land- and waterrelated aspects and should be carried out at the level of the catchment basin or sub-basin" (UNCED, 1993). According to their capacity and to available resources all states worldwide should "have designed and initiated costed and targeted national action programs and […] have put in place appropriate institutional structures and legal instruments" (UNCED,

In Europe, the European Water Framework Directive (EU-WFD) is a legal instrument to implement the concept of water management on river basin scale since the year 2000. In Vietnam the legal basis of IWRM is the Prime Minister Decree 120 on River Basin Management (No: 120/2008/NĐ-CP dated 01.12.2008) and the National Target Program Water (NTP-WR 2010). The Vietnamese water law from 1999 will be amended in 2011 and

The Decree 120 on River Basin Management from 2008 regulates the principles and main tasks of river basin management as well as responsibilities for the river basin management. The decree demands an action plan for the prevention and protection of water contaminations and the restoration of contaminated water resources on river basin scale.

Essential preconditions for a successful implementation of IWRM in Vietnam will be to overcome the existing fragmentation of administrative responsibilities in the water sector and the strengthening and reorganization of the existing River Basin Organizations (RBOs). The RBOs should be authorized to raise wastewater charges and to spend these financial means on their own responsibility for required IWRM measures according to the priorities

identified by the method developed in the R&D project IWRM-Vietnam.

contributes "Planning and Decision Support Tools" in order to improve decision processes of Vietnamese decision makers in the water sector.
