HCM City (VNS/VNA)- Erosion and subsidence along canals, rivers and coasts have been severein many areas in the Mekong Delta and local authorities are struggling to raisefunds for works to prevent them.

Ca Mau province has around1,000 such sites along canals as hot weather and drought have caused mostcanals to dry up, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

In Tran Van Thoi district, a120-metre section of the western coastal dyke in Khanh Binh Tay commune waswashed away last week. The section was two metres wide in some places.

Le Phong, Chairman of the TranVan Thoi District People’s Committee, said warning boards have been set up atthe eroded section to warn traffic.

Work to upgrade the dyke, whichstretches 72km from Tieu Dua coast bordering Kien Giang province to CaiDoi Vam town, has been estimated at more than 1.7 trillion VND (72.7 millionUSD).

But the province is currentlyonly building a 49km section from Tieu Dua to Song Doc town because of the lackof funds.

The dyke plays an importantrole in preventing coastal erosion and protecting thousands of farminghouseholds.

In neighbouring Kien Giang province,there are 14 coastal erosion sites adding up to more than 92km, according toits Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The province needs more than 2.16trillion VND (92.9 million USD) to fix the problem. It has so far mobilisedfunds to address 25km of erosion.

Kien Giang has a coastline ofmore than 200km, which is protected by 130km of dykes and another 70km of dykeswhich double up as roads.

The dykes are built with soilon coastal mudflats. 

Nguyen Van Tam, Director of theprovincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said themudflats are not stable and shift regularly.

To cope with climate change andcoastal erosion, the province has built breakwaters in some eroded coastalareas to create mudflats for growing protective forests.

In An Giang province,authorities are assessing erosion-prone and subsided areas to take measures tosecure people’s safety and properties. 

An Giang has 52 river and canalsections with erosion warning levels ranging between average to extremelydangerous, according to the province’s Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment.

Last year it had 46 erosion andsubsidence spots along canals and rivers with a total length of 3.4km, causingfour houses and a part of another to fall into a river and 146 households tomove to safer areas.

They caused losses worth 32.6billion VND (1.4 million USD).

Drought and saltwaterintrusion

A number of provinces inthe region are also seeking funding from the Government to battle theeffects of drought and saltwater intrusion.  

Ben Tre province has asked formore than 1.15 trillion VND (49.4 million USD) to build projects to preventsaline instruction and supply fresh water foragricultural production and household use, according to the province’sDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Bac LieuProvince People’s Committee has asked the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development and the Ministry of Finance for 225 billion VND (9.7million USD) to dredge irrigation canals, pump irrigation water, and installmore tap water pipes and automatic water monitoring stations.

In addition, Soc Trangprovince has requested 1.37 trillion VND (58.8 million USD) to upgrade andbuild saltwater prevention sluices, pumping stations and temporarydams, while Long An province has sought 170 billion VND (7.3 millionUSD) for the same facilities. 

Vo Kim Thuan, head of the LongAn Sub-department of Rural Development and Irrigation, said that drought andsaltwater intrusion had affected 13,000ha of rice and 11,000ha offruit in the province’s southern districts.

Long An authorities and farmersare building temporary dams and pumping irrigation water into fields to saverice.

The delta, whichincludes 12 provinces and Can Tho city, is facing severe saltwaterintrusion during the dry season, which is expected to equal therecord severe saltwater intrusion in 2016.

However, the damage from saltwaterintrusion has been lower this year as the deltabegan preparations at the beginning of the dry season.

So far this yearduring the dry season, the delta has had about 20,000ha of rice damaged bydrought and saltwater intrusion compared to more than 400,000ha damaged in2016, according to delta’s statistics.

In a meeting held in Tien Giangprovince last week, Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, praised the delta’s steps to prevent andcontrol drought and saltwater intrusion for the 2019-2020 winter - springrice.

The authorities’ earlyinstructions for the winter-spring crop and farmers' strict adherence toplanting schedules have helped to reduce the amount of damage. Fruitorchards in the delta have also been protected well, he said.

With the success of the winter- spring rice crop, proper sowing schedules for the next summer - autumn riceshould be established, Doanh said, adding that provinces should alsodevelop construction as well as non-construction measures.

In recent years, the delta hasbuilt many large irrigation projects to cope with drought and saltwaterinstruction, which have helped mitigate damages toagricultural production.

The Ninh Quoi Sluice in Bac Lieuprovince’s Hong Dan district, for instance, was put into use last year and hasprevented saltwater intrusion and regulated irrigation water in shrimp- rice farming areas.

Thanks to the sluice, BacLieu’s 48,000ha of winter - spring rice has not been affected bysaltwater intrusion. The sluice cost more than 400 billion VND (17.2million USD)./.