Vietnam is located in the tropical monsoon region and it often faces many types of extreme weather events, especially storms and droughts. In addition to the effect of climate change, extreme weather events have been becoming more complicated and difficult to predict, causing heavy losses to many areas and economic sectors of the country. These problems impose a great threat to the country to achieve its socio-economic targets and sustainable development goals. This study uses a Riparian approach integrated with two-stage Hsiao method using a panel dataset from 2000–2018 to examine the impact of extreme weather events and climate change on the output of agriculture and fishery enterprises in the Central and Central Highlands regions of Vietnam. Findings from the study indicate that extreme weather events and climate change have a negative impact on agriculture and fishery enterprises in the regions. Specifically, the model results show that the value-added loss to agriculture and fishery enterprises as the impact of extreme weather events and climate change may escalate from billion VND 3597.72 to 18,891.2 under different climate change scenarios. The results also indicate the impact of various factors regarding extreme weather events and climate change on the efficiency of enterprises in the study area. Findings from this study provide insights on the impacts of extreme weather events and climate change on value-added of enterprises in the study regions and help to propose appropriate solutions to adapt and mitigate their impacts in the future.

Clean water and sanitation is a global issue that has recently received special attention from governments and international organizations, as they essential to enhance people’s health and foster socio-economic development in different countries. Therefore, one of the United Nations’ Millennium Goals is to ensure access to safe drinking water for all as its target by 2030. However, ensuring water supply in rural regions, especially in developing countries, is a challenge. To meet the target, investing in infrastructure and maintaining the sustainability of water systems is crucial. This study takes into account the role of the management model of rural water supply systems and its relationship with the sustainability of the water systems. A weighing procedure for a sustainability assessment of rural water systems for the current study was proposed, then an ordered logit regression model was applied to examine the relationship between types of water system management models and the sustainability of the water systems in the context of Vietnam. The results from this study showed that type of management model had an influence on the sustainability of rural water supply systems, and the private management model was considered the one that significantly contributed to the sustainability of the rural water systems in the study area. The study provides some lessons learned for researchers in the field of rural water supply to select appropriate approaches to assess the sustainability of water systems and for policymakers to modify current policies toward more sustainable development of water infrastructure in the future, especially in developing countries.

This paper overviews Vietnam’s outcomes in implementing policies in the rural water supply and then applies a Delphi technique to determine the key factors in attracting the private sector in the context. Five factors were identified, including: government commitments; a unit at the central level to support projects; an authority at the local level to promote the activities of projects; guaranteed financial capacity to support projects; and a legal framework for the realization of projects. The findings from this study provide insights that may promote the participation of the private sector in Vietnam. The paper offers some lessons for other developing countries to pursue similar approaches.

Water pricing has been recognized as an important policy instrument for improving the efficiency of irrigation and underpinning the sustainability of related services. However, establishing and charging the ‘right’ price is no simple task. This paper uses an exploratory factor analysis to isolate farmers’ motivations towards farming. A binary logit regression is then used to examine the relationship between motivation, household, and farmer characteristics and willingness to pay for improved irrigation services. Findings from this study suggest that a ‘one size fits all’ approach faces remote prospects of success and better targeting of reform effort is warranted.

Water is an important input for irrigated agriculture. However, the irrigation sector, especially in developing countries, often faces pressure to secure water for production activities and maintain irrigation services. To sustain the supply and delivery of water in irrigation, not only should efficient use of water resources be promoted, but the balance between the cost and revenue from water supply must be sustained. In most cases, the appropriate setting and application of water pricing is crucial to achieving these objectives. In this paper, the use of level-of-service-based water pricing is described and illustrated with a case of a modernized irrigation system in a central highland province of Vietnam. The results from this study show that: (i) modernization of irrigation systems increases service levels and farmers have more choices for selecting services provided; (ii) water rates can be reasonably calculated with respect to the level of irrigation services provided; and (iii) farmers are more likely to select an acceptable level of service for a reasonable water price instead of choosing to pay more for a higher quality of service. This paper highlights the importance of policies which support the modernization of irrigation systems and pursuing level-of-service-based water pricing to promote more sustainable irrigation development in developing countries.