In Vietnam, water is everywhere during the rainy season but critically scarce just months later. Rising sea levels push saltwater into rivers and canals and threaten coastal aquifers, especially in the Mekong Delta. Meanwhile, decades of groundwater extraction have caused water tables to drop and, in some areas, the land itself to sink. For a country home to millions of people and much of its food production concentrated in vulnerable river deltas, the pressure on water resources is mounting. Yet an invisible resource may hold part of the answer. Through IPDC, the Netherlands and Vietnam are developing the practical guidelines and training needed to make managed aquifer recharge work at scale.
This project was commissioned by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and led by IPDC partner Deltares, in close collaboration with the Department of Water Resources Management (DWRM), VEI (Vitens Evides International) and a team of Vietnamese national experts in MAR technology, water policy and stakeholder engagement.
Banking water underground
Managed aquifer recharge, or MAR, is a technique that works on a simple principle. During the rainy season, when water is plentiful, it is carefully treated and recharged into underground water reserves – aquifers – for storage. In the dry season, or when saltwater intrusion cuts off surface water supplies, that stored water can be recovered. Think of it as a savings account for freshwater, built beneath the ground.
The word “managed” matters. Accidental replenishment of underground reserves has occurred in the past, but without monitoring quality or tracking what happened beneath the surface. However, done without proper management, recharge can damage the very resource it is meant to protect.
MAR is not new to Vietnam. Pilots have been running since the early 2000s, but they remained largely short-term and research-driven – never quite reaching the scale the country needs. In 2023, the Vietnamese government revised the Water Resources Law, explicitly identifying MAR as a priority strategy for sustainable groundwater management. Yet having the law in place has not been enough to get MAR off the ground at scale.
A legal gap that stopped projects in their tracks
Without clear technical guidelines, local authorities have no reliable basis for approving or rejecting MAR applications. By law, a permit is required to drill a groundwater well – but the law only covers extraction, not artificially recharge. At some point, recharging water back into the aquifer was even considered partly prohibited, as authorities wanted to prevent contamination from entering the groundwater. These uncertainties have left local authorities reluctant to approve MAR projects.
Building the missing link
The team began by taking stock of what already existed: reviewing previous MAR pilots in Vietnam, drawing lessons from what had worked and what had not, and studying technical guidelines from other countries, including India, Australia and several European nations. From that foundation, they set out to develop guidelines that bridge law and practice.
The guidelines cover the full process of a MAR scheme: how to assess whether a location is suitable, how to design and construct the system, how to monitor water quality before and after recharge, and how to manage risks.
Bringing everyone to the table
Crucially, the guidelines were not written in isolation. The team held an online inception workshop, conducted bilateral meetings with key stakeholders, and organised consultation workshops that brought together provincial environmental departments, water supply companies and universities. Input from Dutch partner VEI – Vitens Evides International – fed international experience with EU regulations into the process, while Vietnamese experts ensured the guidelines fit the country’s specific hydrogeological conditions and legal context.
The consultations brought different perspectives to the table. Universities pushed for more technical detail while management authorities were mindful that too many specifications could become a barrier to companies that want to implement MAR. Water supply companies were broadly supportive, but for many, the technique was still largely unfamiliar. Balancing all of this input shaped the final guidelines into something that is both technically sound and workable in practice.
From draft to national standard
With finalisation expected by the end of June 2026, the guidelines are set to become a national standard procedure for Vietnam, giving project initiators and provincial officials alike a clear, shared basis for MAR implementation.
Once in place, they are designed to encourage water supply companies, bottling plants and other large groundwater users to invest in recharge schemes: not just extracting water, but actively replenishing the aquifer. To make that investment worthwhile, the Vietnamese government is exploring financial incentives that recognise the public benefit of privately funded recharge.
“When the MAR guidelines are embedded as a national standard, it will transform how Vietnam manages its groundwater – moving towards sustainable, balanced management that is crucial for the long-term health of the Vietnam Delta and the country’s water resources as a whole,” – Trang Dinh Phuong, IPDC country coordinator for Vietnam and project lead
What other deltas can learn
The pressures facing Vietnam’s deltas are not unique. Deltas and coastal regions across Asia and beyond are grappling with the same combination of abundance and scarcity. What this project offers is a replicable model: build on existing pilots, root guidelines in national legislation, involve the people who will use them from the start, and pair international expertise with local knowledge. In a delta shaped by water, the answer lies in learning to store what has always flowed through it.
Want to know more about IPDC support in Vietnam and this project? Get in touch with Trang Dinh Phuong at trang.dinh@deltares.nl or Niels Mulder at niels.mulder@deltares.nl.
