Monitoring of a shallow Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) pilot in Vietnam

The objective of the monitoring is to evaluate the performance of a shallow Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) pilot, installed in the commune of Long Son commune in the Tra Vinh province, Vietnam.

Within the Framework for coordination of Automated Mobility in Europe (FAME), a Partners for Water 4 project was implemented to install a shallow Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) system in the Long Son commune in the Tra Vinh province of Vietnam. The system was installed as a pilot to assess the potential of shallow ASR to increase water availability for farmers during the dry season and reduce their vulnerability to drought.

The results of this pilot should increase the understanding of how these systems can support the crop production of farmers by making more fresh groundwater available when surface water is too saline. The pilot was installed in October 2021, right in the onset of the dry season. Since the FAME project ended in February 2022, the pilot could just be monitored for a few months, which were not enough to conclude on its performance.

Understanding how much extra fresh groundwater is available as a result of the shallow ASR, and what is the quality of this water, will provide the insights needed to estimate how this water could improve crop production and reduce the vulnerability of farmers to drought. This information is also indispensable to conduct a cost-benefit analysis so that farmers and water authorities can evaluate the best strategy to implement ASR in their plots and the potential upscaling in the province.