Building embankments to prevent saltwater in Tien Giang (Photo: VNA) Tien Giang (VNA) – Cai Lay district of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Gianghas decided to spend 7.68 billion VND (over 326,000 USD) from the local budget onurgently building facilities to prevent saltwater from harming local fruit cultivationareas.
Vice Chairman of the district People’s Committee Ly Van Cam said the work willfocus on dredging 20 fresh water storage canals, repairing 10 anti-salineintrusion culverts, and building 24 embankments to prevent saltwater.
These are expected to protect about 15,000 ha of land for cultivating fruittrees, he added.
The district authorities will regularly update saline intrusion and droughtsituations, thus recommending local farmers to take preventative measures.
Training courses will also be organized to introduce locals to fruit tree cultivationtechniques during and after each drought and saline intrusion spell.
Attention has been paid to installing more salinity meters in communes with manyfruit gardens, and appropriately building the operation schedule for culverts andembankments to regulate water, prevent saline intrusion, and collect freshwater.
According to director of the district’s agriculture and rural developmentoffice Tran Ly Ngu Binh, the locality has set up hundreds of salinitymeasurement points on the Tien River, its tributaries and canals.
Campaigns to popularise saltwater countermeasures to local farmers have beenlaunched, he said./.
VNA
