The Cai Lon sluice is being built in Kien Giang province. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta will continue to increase in March and April, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting.
The peak of saltwater intrusion will occur during high tide on March 12 -16, March 27 – April 1, April 9 – 14 and April 24 – 30.
The delta, the country’s largest rice, fruit and seafood producer, is facing a higher than normal level of saltwater intrusion from the sea through river mouths in the ongoing dry season. However, it is not as severe as the level of the previous dry season.
The delta’s provinces have dredged irrigation canals to store more water and upgraded and built dams and sluices to prevent saltwater intrusion and store fresh water.
Nguyen Thien Phap, head of Tien Giang province’s Irrigation Sub-department, said the province has built eight dams to store fresh water for agricultural production and supply daily use water for 800,000 households.
Farmers in Tien Giang, the country’s largest fruit producer, have stored irrigation water in their orchard ditches for fruit and other crops.
In Ca Mau province, farmers have stored fresh water in containers and have switched to growing drought – resistant crops.
The delta sowed the ongoing winter-spring rice one month earlier than normal to avoid a shortage of irrigation water at the end of the crop. Farmers are now harvesting the winter-spring rice and have had a bumper harvest. The harvest of the winter-spring rice is expected to be completed in May./.
VNA
