This paper examines the water dimensions of recent large-scale land acquisitions for biofuel production in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Northern regions of Ghana. Using secondary sources of data complemented by individual and group interviews, the paper reveals an almost universal lack of consideration of the implications of large-scale land deals for crop water requirements, the ecological functions of freshwater ecosystems and water rights of local smallholder farmers and other users.

This working paper contains the proceedings of the workshop that was organized on 14 March 2001 in Hanoi, gathering experts from the various disciplines such as health, environment,water resources management, irrigation, agriculture, soil sciences, water quality, etc. to discuss the findings of 16 papers on different aspects of wastewater reuse. The proceedings of this workshop are presented here in summary form, which we hope will provide a bird's-eye view of the current knowledge in Vietnam on this subject to a wide spectrum of interested persons.

The presentation first guides to the challenges of water management. First are old challenges related poor conditions and physical deterioration of irrigation and drainage systems; while new ones such as the rising number of farming units not aligned with hydraulic boundaries; variety of crops grown therefore diverging irrigation schedules; mismatch between on-farm irrigation system and smaller farming units; and dissolution of former water management units of collective farms.