| Abstract | The thesis focuses on present-day management of Saigon River in Hochiminh City (HCMC), a river that in recent decades since the Doi Moi has been subjected to an unprecedented multiple and intensive use and water degradation. It describes and assesses existing legal management framework, lines of authority, administrative strictures and practices of Saigon River from the normative framework of integrated river management, with especial emphasis on the multi-stakeholder participatory component of the latter. The thesis describes the overlapping pattern and the lack of coherence of current official definitions of government agencies involved in one way or another with the river and its resources. It also describes and explains how administrative separatism has fragmented the tasks and activities of river management; at the same time, omitting a fundamental concern of managing the river as an ecological whole wherein both conservation agenda and optimization of societal benefits and welfare are kept in a good balance. This study also looks into the pervasive problem of bureaucratic, top-down style of leadership and how this stymies the development of a high degree of participation by wide range of groups and communities with keen interests on the state of the river and its management. One of its findings is that in the absence of a common problem frame or platform of action on Saigon River, stakeholders remain to be ill-defined, and lack self-awareness and positive attitude to perform such role through active participation in management and decision-making. The thesis argues that these aforementioned factors pose a major difficulty and constraint in developing an integrated and participatory river management for Saigon River or, even at least, in moving current management activities closer to this approach. It further argues that these problems directly bearing on the fragmented and ineffective river management arc, in turn, influenced and shaped by a broader context of macro forces and trends, to wit: the development context of Vietnam at present with an overarching emphasis on economic growth and its attendant rapid industrialization and urbanization; the utilitarian official discourse on river as `water resource' that neglects the important dimensions of ecological integrity, conservation, and overall societal benefit and welfare; the `pillar' bureaucratic arrangement and functioning of a strongly centralized state; and the pervasiveness of a non-participatory political culture in the country. Constraints and obstacles, therefore, to an integrated and participatory management approach to Saigon River also lie beyond the domain of water sector governance. However, notwithstanding these difficulties and constraints, the author argues that there is scope even at present for certain immediate and meaningful reforms to move closer towards more integration and multi-stakeholder participation in river management. The thesis employs a mixed-method research strategy. While qualitative research is the principal method employed, the study also uses quantitative research in the form survey and descriptive statistics as a secondary method. Qualitative techniques used in the thesis are discourse analysis, participatory data-gathering, key informant interviews, focus group interviews, and records review |