“This year’s drought and salinity were much more devastating than what we saw four years ago,” said Nguyen Thien Pap, head of the water resources department in Tien Giang, one in all the provinces that declared a state of emergency within the Mekong Delta.
In the Mekong Delta, which produces greater than half of the country’s rice, a complete of 33,000 hectares of rice fields have been destroyed to date, and almost 70,000 households are affected by water shortages, Vietnamese National Television reported on Friday, citing the newest data from the national television. water resources department.
Salinity levels of 4 grams per liter will proceed to spread across the Delta, affecting as much as 110 kilometers in some major estuaries this month, in accordance with a report by the Southern Water Resources Research Institute in Ho Chi Minh City. This is three to 5 kilometers greater than in the identical period of 2016.
In the short term, one other severe period of salinity is anticipated, while the flow of water from the Mekong River into the region this month stays very low and is estimated to be 20 percent lower than the identical period in 2016, in accordance with the Vietnam National Center for Hydrometeorology Forecasting.
The lack of rainfall combined with increasing water use on river tributaries in addition to increased water storage in dams will likely trigger drought and make salt intrusion more severe and chronic, Hoang Phuc Lam, deputy director of the middle, said in a report.
The government estimates that drought and salinity will affect 362,000 hectares of rice and 136,000 hectares of fruit trees within the delta this 12 months, and greater than 120,000 households will experience water shortages. As of March, salinization occurred in about half of districts in 10 of 12 provinces and in a single city within the region.
Persistent drought within the delta in 2016 caused losses value VND8.9 trillion ($384 million), destroying 250,000 hectares of rice, 130,000 hectares of crops and 30,000 hectares of fruit trees, in accordance with local news site VnExpress. According to data from 1926, it was the worst drought within the region, affecting greater than 17 million people.
Although the delta is a key rice-growing area, rice is grown throughout just about all of Vietnam, which is the world’s third-largest exporter after India and Thailand.
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: Drought is hitting Vietnam’s rice bowl hard
