A sea dyke system in Ca Mau Province (Source: baotainguyenmoitruong.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) –Experts gathered at a workshop in Hanoi on December 14 to seek measures toenhance water resources security amid climate change and energy development inthe Mekong Delta region.
According to Nguy Thi Khanh, Director of Green ID under the Vietnam Union ofScience and Technology Associations (VUSTA) - organiser of the workshop, theMekong Delta is facing numerous challenges in ensuring water resources securityand sustainable development.
Climate change and rising sea water level are taking place quicker thanforecast, resulting in many extremist weather patterns that affect thelivelihoods of local residents, she said.
Well-meant but misguided climate change interventions in the Mekong Delta areset to do more harm than good, and only a change in policymakers’ mindset canreverse the damage, said Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent researcher and expert,said.
The change in mindset would involve a shift from forceful interventions toembracing natural cycles, he said.
Thien, whose work focuses on the Mekong Delta’s ecology, was giving his assessmentof Resolution No 120 on sustainable development for the Mekong Delta that PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed in November.
The biggest problem is serious degradation of surface water quality caused by aseries of ill-planned sluices, he noted.
In dealing with the serious threat to crops posed by worsening salineintrusion, authorities have built systems of floodgates to prevent seawaterintrusion into rivers and canals, as also land being “eaten away” by the risingsea, he added.
However, without normal ‘water exchange’ between rivers and the sea, river flowis affected; they become stagnant and pollutants - some 2-3 million tonnes offertiliser and 100,000 tonnes of insecticides or growth stimulants fromagriculture apart from domestic and industrial waste – keeps building in thestill waters. The practice thus far has been to open the sluice gates only whenthe pollution and water quality has reached unbearable levels.
So, in the “the country of rivers and water,” when surface water became unfitfor consumption, Mekong Delta residents have been forced to dig deep forgroundwater.
Thien highlighted the irony of this situation by referring to Samuel TaylorColeridge’s famous quote: “Water, water everywhere, nor a drop to drink.”
The irony gets deeper in the Mekong Delta. With some one million plus wellsdrawing up groundwater in the region, land subsidence has been occurring at therate of 1.6cm per year. If groundwater exploitation continues at this rate, by2050, the entire Mekong Delta would sink 0.88m compared to the 1990s, a result10 times worse than the subsidence caused by rising sea level, Thien warned.
In this context, Resolution No 120 has brought some clear-mindedness and a goodstrategy that Thien felt could “steer the delta towards in a sound direction,”by not considering flooding or saltwater as mortal enemies, and seeing bothfresh water and brackish water as important resources to harness.
If the spirit of the resolution is followed faithfully, the “self-purification”capability of the Mekong River system can be restored, surface water becomesusable again, and the need for groundwater reduced, leading to a deceleration ofsubsidence.
Thien also praised the resolution for doing away with ‘triple cropping,’switching priority from maximising output to maximising the value-addedcomponent in the value chain.
International experts have for long pointed out the close interconnectivitybetween water, food and energy security. An exponentially growing populationdemands increasingly large amounts of food, but current popular agriculturemodels are both water-intensive and energy-intensive, which drive up exploitationof fossil fuels and water, leading to adverse climate impacts and a fall incrop output.
The Mekong Delta needs comprehensive master planning that reduces the water-food-energyconflicts, said Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Climate Change Instituteunder the Can Tho University.
Tuấn urged the Government to rethink its electricity planning – reducing theproportion of coal power, stopping the construction of new coal power plants,and prioritising renewable energy – especially solar energy, an abundantresource in the southern region.
As the nation’s hydropower potentials are exhausted, the Government isenvisioning 14 coal power plants to be built in the Mekong Delta region by2030, with the majority of coal being imported. The move has been criticisedseverely by many energy experts and environment activists who consider this anextreme, backward step that goes against global “greening” trends.
Other workshop participants raised the impacts of hydropower plants and otherwater exploitation projects on upstream stretches of the Mekong River in China,Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
They noted that in the past, the erosion rate trailed the rate of sedimentdeposits. However, as most of the sand and a large part of alluvium in theMekong River are now blocked by the dams, the Mekong Delta is starved of theregular replenishment of its soil that used to happen during the annualflooding season.
Now, the erosion rate has “for the first time in 6000 years, surpassed thedeposition rate,” and along with excessive sand mining, resulted in the recentrise erosion and number of landslides, Thien said.-VNA
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