Land subsidence is worsening in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, and experts told a recent seminar in Can Tho city that over-exploitation of groundwater is one of the factors causing it.
Rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta are becoming alarming, said Prof. David Dapice, Senior Economist, Vietnam and Myanmar Programme, Harvard Kennedy School, at a meeting with leaders of Can Tho city on October 8.
A workshop was held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on October 7 to seek improvement of policies and legislation in response to climate change in Vietnam.
The Mekong Delta has restructured agriculture towards climate-change adaptation and market demand by establishing specialised farming areas for its key agricultural products, and by growing other crops on ineffective rice fields or rotating rice with other crops on the same field.
The Mekong Delta’s 12 provinces and Can Tho city have achieved good results in the national target programme on new-style rural area building, with rural incomes and living conditions improving considerably.
Immediate measures and long-term plans should be implemented quickly to help provinces in the Mekong Delta cope with drought and saline intrusion, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh has said.
The Mekong Delta region is sinking between 2 and 5cm per year, Lao Dong newspaper reported, citing source from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has instructed competent agencies to promptly create regional coordination institutions and a sustainable development mechanism in the Mekong Delta.
The Mekong Delta, the country’s rice granary, will see summer – autumn rice output increase by 150,000 tonnes this year, the Plant Cultivation Department has estimated.
Many farmers in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh have escaped poverty by adapting to climate change and shifting from rice to maize or peanut cultivation as well as the breeding of goats and aquatic species.
The Mekong Delta will not have early or intense flooding in its upper parts this year because of the low water level in the Mekong River, according to the National Centre of Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged central localities to redouble efforts to cope with the prolonged heat wave, drought and saltwater intrusion in the region.
If extreme heat continues in the central region until the end of the dry season, about 65,500ha of rice and annual crops will suffer from drought and water scarcity, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Vietnam recorded 224 persons dead and missing and economic losses of nearly 20 trillion VND (859.5 million USD) in natural disasters in 2018, according to the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.
The Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre will invest more than 2.5 trillion VND (107.5 million USD) by 2030 to develop key aquatic species like black tiger shrimp, white-legged shrimp and tra fish, according to the provincial People’s Committee.
Local cooperatives need to mobilise capital from their members or cooperate with enterprise members to improve their production and trading, the HCM City Cooperative Alliance has said.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has emphasised the Government’s consistent view of building a society safe from natural disasters mainly based on risk control and prevention at a conference on June 20 .
A forum in Ho Chi Minh City on June 18 once again urged effective solutions to riverside and coastal erosion, land subsidence and saltwater intrusion, which are getting worse in the Mekong Delta.
Environment
