Conflict of water using resources under the impacts of Ba Lai sluice dam in Ben Tre province

Abstract

The buiding of gaint Ba Lai sluice dam is an importantpart of the Bac Ben Tre Water Management Project. The dam construction operation in April 30th 2002 influencesall brackish ecosystems to fresh water ecosystem and also  changes sea - river dynamic operations, four districts include: Binh Dai, Ba Tri, Giong Trom and Chau Thanh. Since then, the livelihood of local people has change to adapt to a new characteristic of ecosystem. There are three main agriculture activities: agricultural activities in fresh water ecosystem, aquaculture, pork producer. These economic activities not only
affects on the water system in this area but also leads to the conflict of water using in this area. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the current state of conflict on the use of water in people's lives under the impact of the Ba Lai dam. An indepth interview techniques in combination with reference from previous data were were applied to study in 36 households and 8 local governmental staffs. The maxtrict analyse base on primary data were characterized such as: (i) the conflict between
aquaculture and fresh water agriculture households, (ii) the conflict between aquaculture households, (iii) the conflict between pork producer and (vi) the conflict between households and local government.