Rising Waters, Stagnant Paths: Gendered Experiences of Flooding and Restricted Mobility in Can Tho City, Viet Nam

Abstract

Viet Nam’s response to its vulnerability to climate change impacts is marked by the integration of climate change concerns into sectoral laws. The Government of Viet Nam has also acknowledged the interlinkages of climate change, gender equality, and mobility within its climate regulatory framework. However, the focus on climate-related mobility has predominantly centred on macro-level mobility, which refers to the broad categorisation of migration, displacement, and planned relocation, with limited attention given to micro-level mobility. This chapter understands micro-level mobility as the smaller-scale and day-to-day movements which involve individual decisions regarding daily activities, destinations, and modes of travel. Furthermore, challenges remain in translating national commitments into local action, as evidenced by urban flooding in Can Tho City. Complex interactions between political, economic, social, and environmental elements contribute to recurring floods, with a disconnection between central Government commitments and local implementation, resulting in gendered impacts. Women in Can Tho City bear disproportionate impacts during recurring flood events, restricting their micro-level mobility in the household and public sphere. Women’s decision to remain during floods results from a complex interplay between risk perception, socio-economic elements which contribute to vulnerability, and limited macro-level mobility options. However, at the same time, these women also actively employ strategies to cope with their restricted mobility, which signifies their agency in negotiating the associated risks and adapting to recurring floods. These insights into women’s mobility behaviour during flooding offer a valuable starting point for policymakers to integrate gender and mobility, both at the macro and micro-level dynamics, into concrete climate actions. The findings also underscore the need to pay more attention to micro-level mobility within the climate-related mobility discourse.

1 Introduction

Over the past decade, there has been a growing scholarly interest in exploring the intricate interrelationship between climate change, gender, and mobility.¹ This heightened attention reflects the recognition that these factors are not isolated but are deeply intertwined, influencing one another in multifaceted ways. Scholars have focused on understanding how climate change impacts mobility patterns and how these impacts are experienced differently based on gender dynamics.² However, the literatures on this nexus are still predominantly focused on the macro-level mobility discourse and less on micro-level mobility framing.³

This thriving body of knowledge has started making its mark on different countries’ climate policy documents, including Viet Nam. As one of the most vulnerable countries to the adverse impacts of climate change, Viet Nam has taken significant measures to improve its climate change governance and regulatory framework.⁴ In parallel, Viet Nam has also strengthened its commitment to climate change mitigation as reflected in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) document. In the updated 2022 NDC, Viet Nam has increased its unconditional contribution from 9 to 15.8% and its conditional contribution from 27 to 43.5%.⁵ Furthermore, Viet Nam to a certain extent has also incorporated gender equality and mobility issues into the climate regulatory framework.

This chapter examines the systematic integration of gender principles and mobility considerations into Viet Nam’s climate governance and regulatory framework. It considers the extent to which these principles have been incorporated and how they impact the gender-specific consequences of climate-related micro-level mobility at the local level, using the case study of recurrent urban flooding in Can Tho City, Viet Nam. This is achieved by analysing Viet Nam’s climate and gender regulatory frameworks, focusing on how the government has taken steps to promote the development of a gender-responsive climate regulatory framework. The analysis also delves into how mobility issues are being framed and positioned within these frameworks and to what extent they have been implemented at the local level. The next section provides an explanation of the methodology used to obtain these findings, and the subsequent section presents and further elaborates the results of this analysis.

This result is exemplified in the subsequent section through a case study concerning the restricted mobility of women in the context of urban flooding in Can Tho City, Viet Nam. The urban flooding phenomenon in Can Tho City is assessed through the lens of human–environment interactions, synthesised into six dimensions.⁶ Moreover, various categorisations of how micro-level mobility is disrupted during extreme weather events are employed to gain insights into how women adapt to restricted mobility during floods.⁷ Finally, the last section highlights the insights drawn from the case study analysis, which reinforce the call for integrating gender equality and mobility components into the climate regulatory framework in an integrated manner, from national to local levels. Moreover, the findings also emphasise the need for broader discussions on micro-level mobility within the gender and climate-related mobility discourse.

2 Methodology

This research, spanning a duration of 10 months from May 2019 to February 2020, provides a comprehensive exploration of the experiences of 24 women in Can Tho City before, during, and after flood events. Can Tho City was selected as the research site due to its prominence as the largest city in the Mekong Delta, with a population of around 1.2 million, and plays a pivotal role as the economic hub of the region.⁸ The study employs a qualitative approach, relying on semi-structured, in-depth individual interviews, and participant observation to capture the nuanced impact of floods on the lives of women residents. Participants were purposively selected to ensure representation across diverse social backgrounds, varied family structures, and different parts of the city, considering their multifaceted experiences with floods.

In addition to primary data collected directly from the women respondents and other relevant actors, the study incorporates secondary data from academic journals and grey literatures. The temporal focus of the research aligns with the rainy season from September to November when floods and high tide events are prevalent in Can Tho City. The investigation concentrates specifically on 48 floods and high tide events occurring within a three-month timeframe, shedding light on the intricacies of these phenomena. The research involves visits to 14 households during flooding, providing real-time insights into the challenges faced by women residents. For the remaining homes, visits occurred during non-flood times, prompting retrospective reflections from respondents on their previous flood experiences. This methodological approach ensures a holistic understanding of the multifaceted implications of floods on the city, communities, and, notably, the lives of women residents.

3 Governance and Regulatory Framework of Climate Change and Gender Equality in Viet Nam

3.1 Climate Change

Viet Nam has been recognised by different climate risk indices as one of the countries with the highest susceptibility to extreme changing climate conditions. For instance, Viet Nam was ranked as the third most vulnerable country in Southeast Asia and as the tenth in Asia by the 2021 University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) ⁹Index. The ND-GAIN Index calculates the country’s vulnerability based on six essential sectors, including food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure, and three cross-cutting components: (i) exposure to climate-related hazards; (ii) sensitivity to the impact of climate-related hazards; and (iii) the adaptive capacity to cope with climate-related hazards.¹⁰

In the 2019 INFORM Risk Index, Viet Nam is also ranked first as the country with the highest exposure to river and coastal floods.¹¹ Viet Nam scored 9.9 and 9.6 for river and coastal floods, respectively, with 10 representing the maximum exposure to specific hazard.¹² Similarly, the 2020 Global Climate Risk (GCR) Index developed by Germanwatch also identified Viet Nam as the sixth most affected country by extreme weather events between 1999 and 2018 among 181 assessed countries.¹³ The GCR Index focuses on the quantification of loss and damage caused by extreme weather events, based on the analysis of four indicators: (i) number of deaths; (ii) number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants; (iii) sum of losses relative to Purchasing Power Parity (PPP); and (iv) losses per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Viet Nam’s 2022 NDC document also demonstrates a similar analysis. For 2020 alone, when considering the overall cost of environmental degradation, the government estimated that the country experienced a climate-related economic loss of around USD 10 billion, equivalent to 3.2% of the country’s GDP.¹⁴ The government also identified climate change as one of the factors that could hinder the country’s development.¹⁵ It is projected that, without effective adaptation and mitigation measures, Viet Nam could experience a potential cumulative economic loss of USD 400–523 billion or 12–14.5% of the country’s GDP by 2050, due to climate change.¹⁶ The Government of Viet Nam has adopted various regulatory measures responding to this phenomenon, among them, notably, the decision to mainstream climate change considerations into different sectoral laws, instead of enacting an individual law to address climate change issues.

For example, the Law on Environmental Protection (No. 72/2020/QH14), which supersedes the Law on Environmental Protection (No. 55/2014/QH13), has stipulated that environmental protection planning should incorporate the climate change trend prediction and its impacts, and climate change analysis and responses should also be integrated into the Social-Economic Development Strategy (SEDS) and the General Social-Economic Development Plan (GSEDP).¹⁷ This stipulation is a significant measure to address climate change issues because both the SEDS and GSEDP are the overarching documents that guide the state’s political, economic, and social direction, including in terms of regulatory and legislative development. Similarly, the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13), Law on Land (No. 45/2013/QH13), and Law on Meteorology and Hydrology (No. 90/2015/QH13) have also specified the requirement to mainstream climate-related considerations into strategies and plans in their respective sectors.¹⁸ The government has enacted 19 regulations and policies related to GHG emissions reduction and climate change adaptation, which then translated into 20 resolutions, master plans, plans, and programmes.¹⁹

Even though there is no specific climate change law in Viet Nam, the government has mandated the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) as the leading state agency responsible for addressing all climate-related issues, including regulation and policy formulation. The MONRE Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister act as the vice-chairmen of the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC). The NCCC, established in 2012, is the primary institutional body that proposes strategic advice to the Prime Minister related to the country’s direction in addressing climate change issues. The MONRE also functions as the permanent acting agency of the NCCC and the host agency for the Committee Office, as it is the NCCC’s operational assisting body.²⁰ Furthermore, the MONRE is also mandated as the National Focal Point to lead the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement, as well as other relevant climate-related international treaties, in Viet Nam.²¹

The Government of Viet Nam has taken steps to incorporate mobility within its climate regulatory framework, particularly concerning climate-related migration. One of the earliest strategic documents that mention this issue is the 2018 Third National Communication to the UNFCCC, which recognised that climate change has a detrimental impact on the economic well-being of families, and thus serves as a primary driver of increased migration.²² Furthermore, the country’s 2022 NDC document highlights the increasing trend of climate-related migration. It recognises how climate change contributes to the rise in migration, compelling tens of thousands of households to experience permanent relocations, thereby putting at risk the preservation of their cultural identity and local knowledge, constituting a form of non-economic loss and damage.²³

Planned relocation, as a distinct form of mobility, has also been mentioned in Viet Nam’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) 2021–2030 in the context of the government’s response to disaster events. The government illustrated the importance of planned relocation as part of its climate strategies through the implementation of the Programme on Population Resettlement for Areas Vulnerable to Natural Disasters, Extremely Challenging Areas, Border Regions, Islands, Free Migration, and Special-Use Forests for the Period 2013–2015 and the Orientation to 2020 (Decision No. 1776/QD-TTg dated November 21, 2012) during the period of 2011–2015. In this programme, more than 70,000 out of 85,900 households (over 60%) residing in disaster-prone regions were relocated to establish stable settlements.²⁴ This effort encompassed the planning of climate-resilient residential settlements, the development of flood-resistant residential areas in the Mekong Delta, and the population resettlement programme for areas vulnerable and exposed to disasters.²⁵ Furthermore, Viet Nam has introduced resettlement as part of its disaster management strategies, particularly in the Mekong Delta region, since the early 2000s and has subsequently enacted around ten policies on resettlement in alignment with the country’s climate actions.²⁶ With this understanding, the following section evaluates the legal framework regulating the gender issues in Viet Nam.

3.2 Gender Equality

The promotion of gender equality and women’s rights in Viet Nam can be traced back to the pre-independence period. Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Viet Nam’s communist movement and the country’s first president, repeatedly positioned women at the centre of his liberation movement; he noted,

In building socialism, one of the important issues is the struggle for equal rights for women. Equality is not only about politics, but also from the real life of social and family life. Therefore, we have to respect women. We do revolution to gain equality. Boys and girls are equal. It is necessary to truly liberate women and respect women’s rights, only when women are freed from the remnants of customs, feudal thought, then they are confident enough to rise up to contribute their efforts to build a socialist country.²⁷

In this statement, communism and socialism are depicted as the sole paths to achieving women’s emancipation, contrasting with the portrayal of the Western and capitalist societies as morally compromised systems that perpetuate patriarchal family structures and the subjugation of women.²⁸

This concept of gender equality and women’s rights within socialism and the nation’s liberation discourse was then institutionalised in the country’s regulatory framework after its independence in 1945. For example, the 1946 Constitution in Article 24 explicitly stipulates that ‘women of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam have equal rights with men in terms of political, economic, cultural, and social activities and families.’²⁹ Furthermore, this commitment is also present in the 2013 Constitution, where Article 26 mandated that ‘male and female citizens have equal rights in all fields. The state shall adopt policies to guarantee the right to and opportunities for gender equality.’³⁰ This assertion on the importance of equal rights between men and women becomes the basis for further promotion of gender equality principles in the country’s regulations and policies. Furthermore, the Government of Viet Nam also ratified and adopted the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1982, which is among the earliest in Southeast Asia.³¹ This demonstrates the government’s strong commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s rights because the CEDAW is one of the main human rights conventions adopted by the United Nations, which ‘obligates Governments to promote, protect and fulfil the equal rights of men and women in their own jurisdictions.’³²

Another landmark and key regulation to promote gender equality and women’s rights are the Law on Gender Equality (No. 73/2006/QH11), enacted by the government in 2006. This law stipulates gender equality to become a cross-cutting issue and requires the mainstreaming of gender issues in multi-sectorial legal documents.³³ This approach is different from how the Government of Viet Nam addresses the climate change issue, where no individual law specifically addresses climate concerns. More operational gender equality actions are governed under the National Strategy on Gender Equality (NSGE) 2021–2030. The NSGE 2021–2030 aims to address gender equality issues in the following six areas: (i) politics; (ii) economics and labour; (iii) family and gender-based violence; (iv) health; (v) education; and (vi) training.³⁴

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) is the designated state agency to lead the country’s efforts related to gender equality, including the formulation of legal frameworks.³⁵ Thus, the MOLISA is also responsible for overseeing and monitoring the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality (No. 73/2006/QH11). Furthermore, four other key institutions at the national level have specific mandates related to gender equality, which are: (i) Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MOCST); (ii) Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs (PCSA), under the National Assembly; (iii) Viet Nam Women’s Union (VWU), and (iv) National Committee for Advancement of Women (NCFAW).

The MOCST is the focal point for implementing and monitoring the Law on Prevention and Combat against Domestic Violence (No. 13/2022/QH15), which supersedes the previous Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control (No. 02/2007/QH12).³⁶ Moreover, the responsibility to ensure the mainstreaming of gender principles into the state’s legislations lies under the jurisdiction of the PCSA.³⁷ Another important institution in the state’s efforts to promote and ensure gender equality and women’s rights is the VWU, which is instrumental in shaping policies and carrying out Viet Nam’s progressive stance on gender equality.³⁸ The VWU was established in 1930 and played a central role in mobilising women’s support during the liberation movement and stands as one of the most influential institutions dedicated to gender issues, with around 15 million members across all administrative levels.³⁹ The President of the VWU, together with the Deputy Minister and Minister of MOLISA, holds the critical role as the chair and vice-chair of the NCFAW, respectively. The NCFAW is an inter-sectoral committee that coordinates the implementation of Viet Nam’s strategic direction on gender equality.⁴⁰

The government’s continuous commitment to the advancement of gender equality has played a significant role in enhancing Viet Nam’s position in the gender-related global indices, such as the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Inequality Index (GII), and the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). Developed by the Human Development Report Office in 2014, the GDI assesses gender disparities in health, education, and economic resource control using sex-disaggregated Human Development Index (HDI) data.⁴¹ Viet Nam’s GDI stands at 0.997, categorising Viet Nam within Group 1, denoting a high level of gender equality between males and females. Furthermore, the GII assesses gender disparities in three aspects: (i) reproductive health; (ii) empowerment, and (iii) economic participation.⁴² In 2019, Viet Nam scored 0.314 on this index, placing it at 65th among 162 countries.⁴³

Lastly, the GGGI measures the extent of gender-based disparities across critical sectors, including the economy, education, health, and political representation.⁴⁴ Viet Nam has demonstrated a positive trajectory in its ranking from 2020 to 2023. Within East Asia and the Pacific region comprising 20 countries, Viet Nam has risen from the ninth rank to the sixth.⁴⁵ Moreover, globally, its ranking has improved significantly, moving it from the 87th position to the 72nd out of 153 countries.⁴⁶ This upward trend signifies that Viet Nam has successfully bridged 71% of its gender gap during this period.

Nevertheless, despite the abovementioned achievements, it is essential to acknowledge that a disparity persists between the principles outlined in gender equality legal frameworks and the realities on the ground. This gap primarily stems from the prevalence of traditional customs over legal mandates, perpetuating male dominance and a patriarchal paradigm in Viet Nam.⁴⁷ Gender norms influence various facets of life, encompassing the political, social, economic, and cultural, including the division of labour along gender lines. Consequently, this dynamic results in gendered livelihood options, distinct perceptions of risk, and interpretations of climate change and its environmental consequences.⁴⁸ Therefore, it is crucial to assess how males and females in Viet Nam are affected by the adverse impacts of climate change differently and to what extent the government has incorporated gender-responsive principles into its climate actions and initiatives.

4 Gender-Responsive Climate Regulatory Framework in Viet Nam

Gender equality and empowerment have been widely recognised as inseparable from climate mitigation and adaptation actions. During the twentieth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) in 2014, the parties adopted the Lima work programme on gender (Decision 18/CP.201). This programme is designed to facilitate the advancement of gender-responsive climate policies and directives throughout all aspects of negotiations.⁴⁹ This commitment was further strengthened in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21 or CMP 11) in Paris, France, where the parties pledged their commitment to uphold, promote, and incorporate their respective responsibilities regarding human rights, along with gender equality, the empowerment of women, and intergenerational equity in their efforts to combat climate change.⁵⁰ Furthermore, the Paris Agreement underscores the importance of a gender-responsive approach to addressing climate change, as articulated in Article 7 and Article 11.⁵¹

This global commitment is essential because research has shown that women are disproportionately affected by poverty when compared to men, exhibit lower capacity to adapt to current and impending climate change effects, and tend to have less participation and contribution in advancing the understanding of gender-specific climate adaptation or mitigation strategies.⁵² Gender-based disparities in climate vulnerability not only mirror pre-existing gender inequalities, but also perpetuate them. For example, the gendered divisions of labour within households often pose greater obstacles for women when it comes to adjusting to shifts in environmental conditions.⁵³ Consequently, this reduces their prospects for sustainable livelihoods and exacerbates resource shortages.

Numerous studies have also demonstrated similar findings in the context of flooding in Viet Nam. For example, in the case of flooding in Hue City, women who are typically more connected to their families as compared to men felt a heightened responsibility to secure additional income to support their families in the context of flooding.⁵⁴ Despite these significant contributions, women received less information about Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and their limited participation in flood-related planning stemmed from a lack of confidence and the substantial time they dedicated to household responsibilities.⁵⁵ This phenomenon is also found in the case of urban flooding in Da Nang City, where the heavy household responsibilities of women have resulted in lower participation in flood mitigation planning.⁵⁶ However, despite their limited involvement in formal planning processes, women still played a crucial role in flood management at the household level due to their responsibilities in the home.⁵⁷

Considering this empirical evidence illustrating the gendered impacts of climate change in Viet Nam, the government has formally recognised this phenomenon within its climate strategies. For instance, the NAP 2021–2030 highlights disproportionate climate change impacts on women as follows:

Women are more vulnerable to climate change than men given their limited opportunity, condition in accessing education, literacy, income-generating opportunities, land ownership, access to credit, and mental and sexual violence. Women are more dependent on land and ecosystems that are highly exposed to climate change.⁵⁸

This direct correlation between climate change and gender-specific issues was also mentioned in the country’s 2022 NDC,

Rising temperatures, prolonged heatwaves, and droughts increase stress, pressure and anxiety in households, which can lead to violence against women. Climate and temperature related illnesses are increasing in frequency, which poses significant challenges to maternal health.⁵⁹

Nevertheless, at the same time, the government acknowledged that the formulation of the country’s climate change and disaster risk management policies and strategies has lacked a foundation in gender analyses.⁶⁰ This has hindered the ability to discern the distinct climate change impacts on men, women, and groups experiencing differential vulnerability, thereby impeding the development of tailored solutions for each demographic. Furthermore, the government also emphasised the lack of synergy among the country’s regulatory framework related to GHG emission reduction, climate change adaptation, and socio-economic development, including advancing gender equality and women’s rights.⁶¹

The Government of Viet Nam has implemented specific measures to address this issue by incorporating gender-specific language and integrating principles of gender equality. The Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13), for example, explicitly articulates the need for humanity, fairness, transparency, and gender equity to be upheld in natural disaster prevention and control.⁶² Moreover, the law also clearly outlines the importance of the active involvement of women’s organisations and individuals in activities such as integrating communication and educational information on disaster prevention and control, as well as participating in developing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and control measures.⁶³

Another example is the Law on Environmental Protection (No. 72/2020/QH14), which has integrated more explicit directives aimed at mainstreaming gender considerations and ensuring the active involvement of women and women’s organisations.⁶⁴ The law also mandates Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), including women’s organisations, to adhere to environmental protection laws and actively participate in environmental preservation activities. Furthermore, women’s organisations are granted the right to offer input, consultations, advice, criticism, participation, and proposals concerning local environmental protection matters.⁶⁵ Viet Nam’s NAP 2021–2030 also has mainstreamed gender equality principles in all its key tasks and programmes, such as through the development of gender mainstreaming guidelines to enhance women’s engagement in climate-related policy formulation and implementation, as well as to increase women’s participation in initiatives related to DRR and climate change adaptation.⁶⁶

Specific mention of climate-related mobility to women can be found in Viet Nam’s 2018 Third National Communication to the UNFCCC, which underscores the role of climate change as one of the primary catalysts for the surge in migration, with a notable increase in the number of female migrants from rural areas to central cities and industrial parks for better opportunities.⁶⁷ Moreover, the document highlights how female migrants often face worse living conditions than their male counterparts, particularly with respect to housing and environmental sanitation.⁶⁸

Despite this incorporation of gender equality principles to create a gender-responsive climate regulatory framework, there remain gaps in the national commitment and its implementation at the local level.⁶⁹ In the next section, a case study of urban flooding in Can Tho City, Viet Nam, will assess and illustrate this gap.

5 Case Study: Urban Flooding in Can Tho City, Viet Nam

5.1 Urban Flooding: Interactions of Six Dimensions

There has been a consensus in the DRR and climate change discourse that ‘disaster’ needs to be approached within the framework of ‘vulnerability,’ resulting from human and environmental interactions.⁷⁰ In the DRR school of research, disaster risk is understood as the equation of ‘hazard’ interacting with ‘exposure’ and ‘vulnerability,’ which further developed into the ‘resilience’ concept that introduces ‘capacity’ within the equation.⁷¹ Furthermore, vulnerability should not be perceived only as a societal precondition prior to disaster events, but can also be shaped and potentially exacerbated by various coping strategies adopted in the aftermath of a disaster at the individual or institutional level.⁷² Similarly, the climate change schools of thought view vulnerability as the potential damage caused to a system by particular climate-related hazards.⁷³ This, for example, is apparent in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which defines vulnerability as ‘the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected.’⁷⁴ This reflects that the framing and depiction of vulnerability in AR6 are largely influenced by an impact-oriented viewpoint, which focuses on the immediate adverse impacts of climate change on different facets of human lives. In this chapter, the urban flooding phenomenon is understood as the result of human–environment interactions, which is synthesised into six dimensions: (i) geographical location and topography; (ii) urbanisation and local planning; (iii) climate change; (iv) tides; (v) upstream and downstream planning; and (vi) land subsidence.⁷⁵

In terms of geographical location and topography (dimension i), Can Tho City is the largest city in the Mekong Delta and is located in a low-lying area on the south of the Hau River, which is the bigger branch of the Mekong River, about 80 km from the sea, and thus faces both natural flooding from upstream of the Mekong River and tide flows from the sea downstream (Fig. 1).⁷⁶ The city also has an extensive network of rivers, channels, and canals with remarkably high density. The total length of this network exceeds 1.5 km, covering a water surface area of over 1 km², or equivalent to around 6% of the city’s total area.⁷⁷ In the scenario where a sea-level rise of 100 cm occurs, almost one-fourth of the total area of Can Tho City will be inundated. Furthermore, Can Tho City has experienced a massive transformation of the built-environment landscape, with more buildings and industrial zones replacing green spaces and agricultural lands, which was caused by rapid urbanisation from surrounding areas (dimension ii).⁷⁸ For instance, there has been an increase of 7863 people in the area over 15 years (from 2003 to 2019), which has led to the conversion of agricultural land for alternative purposes, reducing it from 51.72 ha in 2003 to 15.17 ha in 2019.⁷⁹ Consequently, green spaces have also declined, shrinking from 187,668 m² in 2004 to 20,808 m² in 2014.⁸⁰ This phenomenon has also exerted additional pressure on the city’s groundwater extraction practices, leading to the exacerbation of land subsidence issues in Can Tho City (dimension vi).⁸¹

Fig. 1

Location of Can Tho City, Viet NamFootnote

Google Maps, ‘Map of Can Tho City, Viet Nam’ accessed 8 November 2023.

This rapid urbanisation is also closely correlated with climate change (dimension iii) and tide dimensions (dimension iv), where climate-related hazards such as sea-level rise, saline intrusion, and tidal inundation pose significant threats to rural livelihoods, which contribute to influence people’s decision-making to permanently migrate from rural to urban areas, such as Can Tho City.⁸³ The annual rainfall in Can Tho City has only slightly fluctuated between 1980 and 2010, with no identifiable trend of increased annual rainfall.⁸⁴ Authors like Nguyen Ngoc Huy et al. even argue that most of the flooding events in Can Tho City between 1978 and 2013 were mostly influenced by the natural phenomenon of high tidal flow (dimension iv), instead of the city’s rainfall intensity.⁸⁵ However, the MONRE has projected that climate change (dimension iii) will increase the annual rainfall rate in Can Tho City to 10% by 2035, as depicted in Table 1.

Table 1 Percentage of annual rainfall changes when compared with the period of 1986–2005Footnote

Government of Viet Nam, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), ‘Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Scenarios for Viet Nam’ (2016) 57.

This escalation will intensify the pressure on Can Tho City, because the city is not designed or equipped with adequate landscape, infrastructure, and other urban planning measures (dimension ii) to absorb the heightened precipitation rate effectively.⁸⁸ Moreover, there is also an absence of groundwater extraction regulations to mitigate the alarming rate of land subsidence in the city (dimension vi), intensifying the urban flooding risk.⁸⁹

In response to this limited urban carrying capacity, the Can Tho City Government has integrated some climate considerations into its 2020 Master Plan on Socio-Economic Development with a vision towards 2030 (Decision No. 1533/QD-TTg dated August 30, 2013), such as through the prioritisation of studying the construction of the regional and sub-regional dyke system, as well as building and expanding automatic observation stations to observe the environmental impacts of climate change in the city.⁹⁰ This is in line with the national commitment as stipulated in the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13), Law on Land (No. 45/2013/QH13), and Law on Planning (No. 21/2017/QH14). Nevertheless, the effective implementation of this master plan is yet to be seen because there are still identifiable gaps in the coordination among city departments and agencies and between relevant agencies at the national and local levels.⁹¹ For instance, despite the intricate and cross-sectoral nature of urban flooding, the responsibility for addressing this issue still falls under the siloed approach of different sectoral departments. As a result, relevant departments and agencies, such as the Department of Construction, Department for Planning and Investment, Can Tho City Climate Change Coordination Office, and Committee for Flood and Storm Control, have yet to formulate a comprehensive strategic response to the existing flood risk.⁹² This governance issue remains despite the explicit mandate stipulated in the national legislation, such as through the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13), to have more integrated and cross-sectoral strategies.⁹³ Additionally, the Can Tho City Government has also enacted the Can Tho Resilience Strategy until 2030 in 2019 and hosted various international development programmes, such as the Can Tho Urban Development and Resilience Project from The World Bank and Green Infrastructure Feasibility Project from The Institute for Social and Environmental Transition–International (ISET-International), to adapt and mitigate the urban floods through infrastructure measures.⁹⁴

Given its geographical location, which is in the middle part of the Mekong Delta, urban flooding is also heavily influenced by events both in the upstream and downstream of the Mekong River (dimension v). For instance, the construction of flood control infrastructure in the upper delta of the river has disrupted the river’s flowing rate and pattern to the downstream.⁹⁵ Another example is the rice intensification programme in the Mekong Delta region as part of the government’s agriculture development initiative. Infrastructures that were developed to support the programme have also altered the natural water flows of the river, which has contributed to the urban flooding occurrence in Can Tho City, as expressed by one of the experts from Can Tho University,

Local governors and planners in the upstream have constructed massive dykes and embankments to support the rice intensification program. However, this has increased the water flow to the downstream part of the river and put more pressure on the regions in the area, including Can Tho City.⁹⁶

This reflects the recurring disconnection between the climate commitments at the national and local levels. The Law on Irrigation (No. 08/2017/QH14) expressly stipulates that climate change concerns must be integrated into the design, construction, and operation of the irrigation works and infrastructure.⁹⁷ Furthermore, Chap. 4 of the Law also requires the incorporation of scenarios of water resources when impacted by climate change conditions within the irrigation plan.⁹⁸ Unfortunately, these considerations have been overlooked when planning and constructing the infrastructure to support the rice intensification programme, which heightened the urban flooding risk in Can Tho City.

In summary, the urban flooding phenomenon in Can Tho City is a complex outcome of intricate interactions across six different dimensions. These dimensions encompass environmental, economic, social, and political aspects, forming a comprehensive systemic framework that highlights the multifaceted nature of this challenge. This framework provides the foundation for comprehending the gendered impacts of urban flooding on the female population of Can Tho City, particularly in terms of their restricted mobility.

5.2 Restricted Mobility: Between Vulnerability and Coping Strategy

Within the climate change and mobility nexus, women are frequently portrayed as one of the most vulnerable demographic groups with less capacity and opportunities to be mobile than their male counterparts, due to unequal power relations and gendered norms.⁹⁹ In the context of urban poor communities, research has shown that their mobility practices result from a complex interplay between personal aspirations, societal expectations, and financial uncertainties, which is often highly gendered.¹⁰⁰ However, there has been much debate on this framing since the dichotomy between mobility and immobility in the climate change context tends to perpetuate gender dualism, where men are often linked to mobility and women to fixed spaces and immobility.¹⁰¹ Furthermore, this binary categorisation may obscure the complexity of the decision-making processes behind mobility (or immobility) practices and disregard the agency of women who choose to remain in a place.¹⁰² The recognition of someone’s agency to determine their actions is central to ensuring the incorporation of a human rights-based approach into climate actions.¹⁰³ Therefore, immobility should not be oversimplified as a result of vulnerability, but instead be considered as part of adaptive capacity and coping strategy, depending on the context.

Understanding the mobility patterns and behavior in the face of climate change is essential to inform decision-makers on how to address this issue systematically at the policy level. To fully comprehend this phenomenon, it is imperative to consider micro-level mobility alongside macro-level mobility rather than exclusively concentrating on the latter. The Climate Change Adaptation Framework categorises climate-related mobility into three distinct forms: (i) displacement, generally understood as forced movement of persons; (ii) migration, characterised by its voluntary nature; and (iii) planned relocation, referring to the planned process of moving persons or group of persons from one location to another.¹⁰⁴ This chapter refers to these forms of mobility as climate-related macro-level mobility, encompassing the temporary or permanent movement of individuals or groups of individuals outside of their places of habitual residence, influenced by climate-related phenomenon. On the other hand, climate-related micro-level mobility is understood as the smaller-scale and everyday movements and decisions made in response to climate-related events, which often relate to individual decisions regarding daily activities, destinations, and modes of travel.¹⁰⁵ This concept of smaller-scale and everyday mobility is often used to analyse the interlinkages between gender and mobility in the urban context, particularly related to the gendered patterns of trip purpose, trip distances, and access to private and public transport.¹⁰⁶ This chapter argues that this form of mobility is valuable for assessing the lived experience of individuals in responding to climate-related events, including floods, particularly for those who do not leave their residences during these occurrences (i.e. macro-level mobility). Limited information on lived experiences at the individual level will not only constrain the understanding of the nuanced realities of living with climate-related risks, but also obscure the multifaceted challenges involved in coping with these risks. In the context of extreme weather events, Ebenezer Amankwaa and Katherine Gough provide insights into how micro-level mobility could be disrupted in three different forms: (i) postponed when people need to restrict their movement; (ii) improvised, referring to the strategies that people apply to navigate the disruption; and (iii) assisted, when people require specific supports to overcome the disruption.¹⁰⁷

The Government of Viet Nam has recognised the interlinkages between climate change and mobility in its climate actions. For example, the 2022 NDC mentioned that ‘climate change is also one of the reasons for increasing migration and forcing tens of thousands of households to permanently relocate.’¹⁰⁸ Furthermore, the NAP 2021–2030 also introduced a dedicated section on the impacts of climate change on migration, which underscores how climate change conditions could influence the decision-making of economic migrants, particularly in the context of agricultural settings.¹⁰⁹ The Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13) also mentions displacement under search and rescue activities in response to disaster events. Nevertheless, this recognition does not manifest in the practical aspects of climate-related mobility governance and maintains a limited focus on macro-level mobility. Moreover, using the term ‘migration’ as a catch-all phrase when referring to mobility carries the risk of masking the multi-causality dimension of the interlinkages between climate change and mobility, and it may neglect the significance of micro-level mobility, especially among populations who choose to stay and do not engage in the macro-level mobility.¹¹⁰

In the context of Can Tho City, urban flooding has been a recurring phenomenon ingrained in the daily experience of its residents. Consequently, the normalisation of these events has influenced some individuals, including women, to remain in their homes during flood events.¹¹¹ The decision of women to stay results from complex negotiations, taking multiple factors into account. This includes the societal expectations of women as the primary caregivers responsible for household duties during flood events and their proactive response to the absence of structural adaptive intervention at the government level.¹¹² Furthermore, risk perception also plays an important role in influencing the decision to remain or to move, particularly related to the water depth, flood duration, frequency, and floor space of the place of residence.¹¹³ Given that frequent floods in Can Tho City characterised by generally shallow water levels (approximately up to 50 cm on average) and a relatively brief duration (around 5–8 h within a span of 3–10 days) have become part of the urban experience of its residents, the associated risk may be perceived as negotiable, and thus, adaptable.¹¹⁴ Nevertheless, for some individuals the decision to remain is also influenced by their vulnerability and limited capacity to move, as articulated by one of the respondents below,

Yes we will do that [moving out]. But we still don’t know, because we need to find enough money in order to build our own house. … We have to find a better place to live because it is flooded here. Sometimes, we cannot do anything.¹¹⁵

Therefore, the decision to remain or to move during floods is the result of intricate interactions of various social, economic, and environmental aspects, as well as continuous negotiation of risk and capacity, rather than being driven by a single causal factor. Furthermore, individuals who decide not to engage in macro-level mobility, whether due to vulnerability, conscious choice, or a combination of both, must actively navigate and adapt to the challenges presented by the disrupted micro-level mobility.

Both women and men experience restricted mobility in the household and public sphere. Within the household sphere, both genders need to navigate carefully around the house to prevent injuries from slippery surfaces.¹¹⁶ However, women are often exposed to floodwater inside the house more frequently, as they tend to stay at home while their husbands are outside for work. This makes them more prone to skin diseases and other health problems, resulting in additional expenses for health-related costs.¹¹⁷ In response, some women have taken measures to improvise their restricted mobility by using protective equipment, such as gloves and plastic shoes, to reduce the risk of associated injuries and diseases.¹¹⁸ On the other hand, women with higher economic status have experienced this restricted mobility within the household sphere differently because they have the financial means to hire additional assistance for managing the flooded house or to acquire water pumps to accelerate the drying process.¹¹⁹ This emphasises the importance of not simplifying the gendered impacts of climate change into the gender dualism between men and women since both genders are not homogenous groups. Therefore, ‘it is important not to see men and women as isolated and impervious categories … because intersectionality with class, caste, religion, age, etc. affects the resources, rights and responsibilities that any woman has.’¹²⁰

Women who need to leave their homes regularly, especially those involved in employment and community work, must continually navigate their choices to address their restricted mobility in the public sphere. For example, they need to adjust their mode of transportation, as moving around on a bicycle during flood times can be challenging and, if not done cautiously, may result in injuries, as expressed by a Can Tho resident,

Sometimes I have to hold my bicycle and walk when I pass the deep flooded areas. I am so afraid riding a bicycle during floods as I have fallen twice before.¹²¹

Women who are engaged in paid employment also often experience the added pressure of working overtime to compensate for the hours they lose when they arrive late to work due to the floods, as a consequence of postponed mobility.¹²² Often, these women are also expected to take on the additional responsibility of managing the flooded house, resulting in both physical and emotional fatigues. This similar additional burden of work is also experienced by women who are involved in informal employment sectors, such as highlighted by a Can Tho City resident who works as a lottery ticket seller,

My husband could not solve the flood water at our house. I had to deal with it, even though I was already exhausted from selling lottery tickets.¹²³

Moreover, negative emotive words, causing pain, hurt, worry, fear, tiredness, anxiety, and hopelessness, are frequently associated with women’s experiences during the floods.¹²⁴ To a certain extent, this also contributes to the higher prevalence of women experiencing non-economic loss related to mental health issues in the face of urban flooding.¹²⁵

Nevertheless, this restricted mobility does not prevent women from utilising their social networks to cope with their restricted mobility, particularly regarding financial access. Women are assuming the role of finding and accessing financial credits, both from formal and informal sources.¹²⁶ In the context of informal sources, women rely on their social networks within their public sphere, such as through their families, neighbours, and friends. The following statement illustrates this perceived role when a Can Tho City resident was asked who would be responsible for finding and borrowing money,

Myself of course! My husband would not dare to do that. As a man, he is too proud (sỹdiện) to ask for money from others.¹²⁷

This expected gendered role regarding financial loans could be explained by the gender distinction in social capital, which is closely related to social norms and interpersonal relationships. Social capital is generally categorised into (i) bonding; (ii) bridging, and (iii) linking ties.¹²⁸ Bonding ties are established within a group of individuals who share common interests, experiences, or belief systems, often associated with survival and recovery in post-disaster and conflict settings.¹²⁹ On the other hand, bridging ties are more related to horizontal networks among groups of individuals who come from different social identities but have shared interests, while linking ties refer to traverse group boundaries in a vertical direction.¹³⁰ Bridging and linking ties are valuable for goods and information exchange and usually occur in more formal group settings.¹³¹

Women are often associated with bonding ties because they engage more in informal gatherings and collective communal activities, which provide more opportunities to strengthen and maintain their bonding ties with relatives and neighbours.¹³² These strong bonding ties will yield enhanced access to socio-economic support between group members, leading to women receiving more support from their social networks in the aftermath of disasters.¹³³ The illustrative case of Can Tho City residents above reflects how strong bonding ties established through informal networks can harness collective support in difficult times. Furthermore, this strategy employed by women to access additional financial means from their social networks reiterates women’s strategies to cope and adapt with the risk from remaining in their places of residence in the time of floods. Even though the decision to abstain from temporary evacuation or permanent relocation may be influenced by their vulnerability and restricted options, women in this study demonstrate a proactive stance in utilising their agency and refusing to passively accept the risks that arise from living with floods.

Unfortunately, this restricted micro-mobility and the limited opportunities to engage in macro-level mobility experienced by the women residents have not been recognised as citizen responses that need to be facilitated by the government. In the Can Tho Resilience Strategy until 2030, there is no reference to any forms of mobility as components of the strategies aimed to enhance the city’s resilience.¹³⁴ Two potential actions that could address the restricted micro-level mobility faced by the residents during floods include development and retrofitting of resilient housing and the improvement of the quality and accessibility of the public transportation system.¹³⁵ Moreover, the document does not include any initiatives to facilitate potential macro-level mobility options for residents at the time of floods. Similarly, the international development programmes hosted by the Government of Can Tho City to mitigate the flood risk focus solely on physical and infrastructure interventions, overlooking considerations of macro and micro-level mobilities.¹³⁶

Insights from this study are expected to offer evidence on the interplay between gender and mobility within the context of flood occurrences in Can Tho City, underscoring the importance of integrating these factors into the city’s flood adaptation and mitigation strategies. This could be achieved, for example, by offering additional health incentives and implementing flood-proofing systems to ensure the continued operation and accessibility of the public transportation system during flood times, thereby supporting the residents’ restricted micro-level mobility. While the Government of Can Tho City may not consider evacuation or permanent relocation as necessary measures, given the typical characteristics of shallow and short-duration floods in the city, it remains crucial to explore the facilitation of macro-level mobility options. This could involve the provision of financing mechanisms to assist residents from flood-prone areas in relocating to other parts of the city with lower flood risks. In this manner, the decision of the residents regarding mobility, whether to move or remain, could be respected, facilitated, and safeguarded by the government.

6 Conclusion

The chapter has highlighted the response of Viet Nam to its high vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change. It is noted that the government has mainstreamed climate change issues into different sectoral laws, such as the Law on Environmental Protection (No. 72/2020/QH14), Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13), Law on Land (No. 45/2013/QH13), and Law on Meteorology and Hydrology (No. 90/2015/QH13).¹³⁷ Furthermore, the government has enacted 19 regulations and policies concerning GHG emissions reduction and climate change adaptation, resulting in the creation of 20 resolutions, master plans, and programmes.¹³⁸

The government has also recognised the interlinkages between climate change issues with gender equality and mobility issues in the climate regulatory framework. For instance, the country’s NAP 2021–2030 and 2022 NDC specifically mention climate change impacts on women’s rights.¹³⁹ Other examples are the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (No. 33/2013/QH13) and Law on Environmental Protection (No. 72/2020/QH14), which explicitly stipulate the mainstreaming of gender principles into their respective sectors, as well as promoting the active participation of women’s organisations in the realms of DRR and environmental protection, respectively.¹⁴⁰ In terms of climate-related mobility, the focus in the NAP 2021–2030 and 2022 NDC has been predominantly on macro-level mobility through the recognition of climate change as a contributing factor to migration.¹⁴¹ Nevertheless, the gap still persists in the implementation of this national level commitment at the local level, as evidenced in the case of urban flooding in Can Tho City.

The complex interactions between six dimensions, which is a combination of political, economic, social, and environmental elements, have resulted in the recurring floods in Can Tho City.¹⁴² The disconnection between climate commitments made by the Central Government and their implementation by local authorities has also played a role in these instances. For example, the absence of climate considerations in the local planning (dimension ii) and fragmentation in planning between the upstream and downstream areas along the Mekong Delta (dimension v) have contributed to this disparity.¹⁴³ Furthermore, Can Tho City’s local planning is also predominantly focusing on physical and infrastructure measures to address the recurring floods, with limited consideration to the intersection between gender and mobility in the context of urban flooding.¹⁴⁴

Women residents of Can Tho City have been disproportionately affected by the urban flooding, including those who choose to stay at their homes during the floods instead of evacuating or relocating to other areas. Their decision to remain is influenced by various intertwined factors, such as risk perception, socio-economic elements which contributed to vulnerability, and limited macro-level mobility options, instead of due to a singular causal factor. Staying behind during flood times also means that women must contend with restricted micro-level mobility in the household and public sphere that is highly gendered. For instance, the gendered role that expects women to be the primary caretakers in the house imposes an additional burden on them and exposes them to greater health risks associated with floodwater.¹⁴⁵ On the other hand, women have employed various measures to improvise their restricted mobility and have assumed a key role in seeking and securing additional financial resources to support the well-being of their households.¹⁴⁶ Thus, the decision of women to stay back, even though it may influenced by their limited capacity to engage in macro-level mobility and result in micro-level restricted mobility including its associated risks, should not be reduced to mere passivity. Instead, it reflects the result of active negotiations of their agency aimed at coping with and adapting to their own vulnerability in the time of floods. However, it is still imperative to recognise that those vulnerability aspects should be addressed to enhance women’s resilience in facing recurring flood incidents.

These insights on women’s mobility patterns and behaviour could provide an entry point for policy makers to incorporate the intricate interactions of gender and mobility in the context of urban floods into climate actions in more concrete terms. They highlight the significance of establishing an integrated climate governance system and regulatory framework from national to local levels, addressing the implementation gap between these tiers of governance. Furthermore, results of this study emphasise the significance of the government developing and implementing policies that respect, facilitate, and safeguard the macro- and micro-level mobility decision undertaken by individuals in response to urban floods. Additionally, these findings highlight the importance of including the micro-level mobility dimension in climate-related mobility discourse, especially at the local level.