Challenging the status quo in the Mekong Delta - a primary research Vietnam and Boba

The lower Mekong River is in its fourth year of drought, with low rainfall, climate change, and hydroelectric dams causing the worst conditions in over six decades, endangering the livelihoods of up to 70 million people. Vietnam, the last downstream country before the Southeast Asian river empties into the South China Sea, is no exception when it comes to water shortage. It is not as simple as turning the tap off to save water, but also the strategy and techniques involved in growing rice to ensure food security. Besides, how much of the decision making process in water management is dominated by men in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta? In this episode, we are taking you to a small border town district called Tinh Bien home to high proportion of marginalized Khmer ethnic minority villages, in An Giang Province where a group of female doctorates from An Giang University are collaborating with farmers and local officials to work on exactly these issues, challenging the status quo in the rural Mekong Delta as they go. We caught up with them before they concluded their research, but there are still many lessons here for those who are interested in water management and gender inequality in the Mekong region to take from.

This episode was supported by Sustainable Mekong Research Network, a Bangkok-based initiative for research and policy engagement.

Vietnam and Boba podcast is a narrative journalism podcast which features local voices and perspectives about socioeconomic, cultural and policy issues in Vietnam to the global audience. It is brought to you by Vietnamese journalist, host and producer Sen Nguyen and multimedia storyteller and photojournalist Giang Pham.