In the last month of the year, dailylife is going on as it has been for hundreds of years in Vietnam’slargest delta in the Mekong River basin.
But, dayby day, the area’s residents are feeling subtle changes caused by theweather, and they are confused about what is happening or what could bedone.
These small changes towards something potentially more extreme couldturn the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta upside down in the next dozenyears, if the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Copenhagendoes not take strong action on global warming, as many scientists havewarned.
As world leaders gather in Denmark at the conference later this week,the Mekong Delta has become a magnet for world attention. Internationaldelegations have been taking turns to visit its provinces in southernVietnam to discover what is occurring there.
The most recent visit was by a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)team who criss-crossed canals during a four-day cruise across theMekong River’s two main tributaries of Tien (Front) and Hau (Rear)early this month.
Around the circumference of Thoi Son Islet, which is in the middle ofthe Tien river facing My Tho City, one of the main centres of thedelta, concrete dykes can be seen here and there to protect thevulnerable land against tidal waves which have become more and moreaggressive in recent years.
Thoi Son’s area of 11sq.km is populated by 6,000 residents, most of whom live on rice crops, fruit crops and fish farms.
Their livelihood is largely dependent on the surrounding river, and forgenerations they have been as familiar with its behaviour as with theback of their hands.
But there is something else they have never known, and cannot explain.
“For the last three years, tidal waves in the flood seasons have grownbigger and bigger,” said farmer Le Thi My Nuong, adding that tidalwaves often inundate the islet for an hour twice a day during floodseasons that fall in the ninth and 10 th lunar months.
Pointing to a new house under construction on a raised foundation halfa metre above the earth, Nuong said that her family had no choice butto live with floods.
“We have been living on this land for generations. We can’t leave sit or afford new land elsewhere,” she said.
Houses built on raised ground like Nuong’s are becoming, whosepopulation is pooling money to built embankment around their homes,gardens and orchards.
“These embankments built by households are making up a system thatcircles 70 percent of the islet,” said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lang, along-time resident and owner of a tourist garden.
“Places without an embankment will have fruit trees wilting and pondfish swept away into the large river,” she added, noting thatfloodwaters tend to rise so suddenly that an anchored boat can bepushed onto the ground within seconds.
“Floodwaters this year are about 20cm higher than last year’s,” saidHuynh Van Dung, 44, a fish farmer living on a floating farm in themiddle of Tien River just offshore the islet.
Dung said he “knows nothing about climate change” and that his biggestconcerns are about the price of his fish and where he can sell thisproduct.
“What comes will come, and even if we care, we can make no big changes,” he said.
At Thot Not district’s Dong Hiep commune, which is a two-hour drivefrom Can Tho, farmers who follow the Vietnamese model that combines anorchard, fish pond and pigsty are also feeling the effects of climatechange.
“The last four years have seen massive rainfall over four on fiveconsecutive days,” said Ho Van Ba, 87, a farmer living on the bank ofDung canal, adding that the downpour has stripped his mango trees offlowers and stimulated growth of harmful insects.
It’s definitely raining more than dozens of years ago,” he said.
Ho Van Du, 65, Ba’s eldest son, said hotter temperatures in March andApril this year were the main causes of his loss of harvests.
“The fish cannot endure intense heat, so up to one third of them died,”he said, noting that diseases can easily spread in hot conditions./.
But, dayby day, the area’s residents are feeling subtle changes caused by theweather, and they are confused about what is happening or what could bedone.
These small changes towards something potentially more extreme couldturn the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta upside down in the next dozenyears, if the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Copenhagendoes not take strong action on global warming, as many scientists havewarned.
As world leaders gather in Denmark at the conference later this week,the Mekong Delta has become a magnet for world attention. Internationaldelegations have been taking turns to visit its provinces in southernVietnam to discover what is occurring there.
The most recent visit was by a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)team who criss-crossed canals during a four-day cruise across theMekong River’s two main tributaries of Tien (Front) and Hau (Rear)early this month.
Around the circumference of Thoi Son Islet, which is in the middle ofthe Tien river facing My Tho City, one of the main centres of thedelta, concrete dykes can be seen here and there to protect thevulnerable land against tidal waves which have become more and moreaggressive in recent years.
Thoi Son’s area of 11sq.km is populated by 6,000 residents, most of whom live on rice crops, fruit crops and fish farms.
Their livelihood is largely dependent on the surrounding river, and forgenerations they have been as familiar with its behaviour as with theback of their hands.
But there is something else they have never known, and cannot explain.
“For the last three years, tidal waves in the flood seasons have grownbigger and bigger,” said farmer Le Thi My Nuong, adding that tidalwaves often inundate the islet for an hour twice a day during floodseasons that fall in the ninth and 10 th lunar months.
Pointing to a new house under construction on a raised foundation halfa metre above the earth, Nuong said that her family had no choice butto live with floods.
“We have been living on this land for generations. We can’t leave sit or afford new land elsewhere,” she said.
Houses built on raised ground like Nuong’s are becoming, whosepopulation is pooling money to built embankment around their homes,gardens and orchards.
“These embankments built by households are making up a system thatcircles 70 percent of the islet,” said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lang, along-time resident and owner of a tourist garden.
“Places without an embankment will have fruit trees wilting and pondfish swept away into the large river,” she added, noting thatfloodwaters tend to rise so suddenly that an anchored boat can bepushed onto the ground within seconds.
“Floodwaters this year are about 20cm higher than last year’s,” saidHuynh Van Dung, 44, a fish farmer living on a floating farm in themiddle of Tien River just offshore the islet.
Dung said he “knows nothing about climate change” and that his biggestconcerns are about the price of his fish and where he can sell thisproduct.
“What comes will come, and even if we care, we can make no big changes,” he said.
At Thot Not district’s Dong Hiep commune, which is a two-hour drivefrom Can Tho, farmers who follow the Vietnamese model that combines anorchard, fish pond and pigsty are also feeling the effects of climatechange.
“The last four years have seen massive rainfall over four on fiveconsecutive days,” said Ho Van Ba, 87, a farmer living on the bank ofDung canal, adding that the downpour has stripped his mango trees offlowers and stimulated growth of harmful insects.
It’s definitely raining more than dozens of years ago,” he said.
Ho Van Du, 65, Ba’s eldest son, said hotter temperatures in March andApril this year were the main causes of his loss of harvests.
“The fish cannot endure intense heat, so up to one third of them died,”he said, noting that diseases can easily spread in hot conditions./.
