Thousands of people in the Mekong Delta Region have been given free freshwater to deal with the on-going drought and saline intrusion.

There were heavy rains yesterday, April 13, in many provinces and cities in the Mekong (Cuu Long) Delta, bringing much-needed water to hundreds of hectares of fruits, vegetables and paddy parched by drought and a water shortage.

In order to export $42 billion worth of products as planned, exports to China need to grow by 10 percent and to ASEAN by 9 percent to offset the decline in exports to the US and EU.

While the world is fleeing from coal, Vietnam is becoming increasingly addicted to coal, according to Nguyen Dang Anh Thi, an energy and enviornment expert.

The government of Vietnam has been trying to diversify investments in special-use forests (SUF) in order to improve financial flows for forest management, protection and conservation activities.

Despite being affected by drought and saltwater intrusion, the Mekong Delta harvested a record output of about 7.3 million tons of rice in the Winter-Spring crop 2019-2020.

If the local population continues to grow uncontrollably, all measures to be applied, from seawater filtering to water transfer from the east to the west, will become useless, experts say.

Hundreds of hectares of crops are withering as Dak Snghe River in Kon Ray district in Kon Tum province is being blocked by two hydropower plants.

Farmers in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang have adopted many new farming models to adapt to climate change, which has helped them cope with the severe saltwater intrusion.

Saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta will likely remain at a high level until the end of April or early May, before gradually declining, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

More farmers in the Mekong Delta have restructured their crop cultivation to adapt to the effects of climate change.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha has proposed exempting charges on businesses for granting rights to exploit water resources for half a year, estimated at over $25 million, or for a year.

Nguyen Van Tinh, director general of the Department of Water Resources, speaks about Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s decision to grant VND500 billion to control salt water intrusion in eight Mekong Delta provinces

About 95,600 households in Mekong Delta face freshwater shortage because of drought and saline intrusion.

Eleven minor earthquakes have occurred in Vietnam since the beginning of this year, according to the Standing Office of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has allocated VND800 million (nearly US$34,000) to five provinces which have declared an emergency due to saltwater intrusion.

Experts believe that it is necessary to think of measures to lead water to the Mekong Delta through a transmission network to save the area from severe drought and saline intrusion.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently had a working session with localities declaring an emergency because of drought and saline intrusion in Mekong Delta, including Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Kien Giang and Ca Mau.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has proposed resuming rice exports from April, with a volume of 400,000 tonnes, after it has compiled reports on production, domestic consumption and exports to submit to the Prime Minister.

Graduating from the Mekong Delta’s prestigious Can Tho University, 24-year-old Pham Thanh Vu still refers himself as a farmer in the truest sense of the word.