Slow adaptation to climate change results in serious consequences

26 March 2024
SGGP
Agriculture and fishing / Climate change / Disasters and emergency response / Irrigation and water management
climate resilience / Mekong Delta region / salinity intrusion / thích ứng với BĐKH / thiếu nước ngọt / vùng ĐBSCL / water shortage / xâm nhập mặn

Slow adaptation to climate change in the Mekong Delta results in serious consequences as the meteorological agency forecast that the 2024 dry season will last until the end of May, and people in the region will suffer more losses. As of mid-March 2024, more than 40,000 hectares of production land lacking irrigation water, more than 200,000 households lacking fresh water for daily use, and nearly 400 cases of subsidence, and landslides in the Mekong Delta provinces due to drought.

According to Nguyen Huu Thien, an expert on the Mekong Delta ecology, this year’s dry season tides have been higher than average for many years, pushing saltwater inland. At large river mouths, salinity prevention works (dykes) have been tightly closed, at this time the pressure of tidal water flows into large branches of the Mekong River, deeply penetrating canals and inland fields. This shows that dyke and embankments construction is not really effective in preventing salinity in coastal areas.