Chau Thoi saltwater prevention sluice in Ben Tre Province’s Giong Trom District.(Photo: VNA) The country’s largest rice, fruit and seafood producer normally faces thisproblem in the period between December and April and agriculture and the livesof locals, especially in coastal areas, are impacted.
To cope with the problem, the delta’s 12 provinces and Can Tho city haverestructured farming and built temporary saltwater prevention dams and storefreshwater.
For the ongoing winter-spring rice crop authorities had instructed farmers tocomplete sowing before the end of December to avoid the impact of saltwater anda water shortage around harvest time.
The Tra Vinh provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said ithas given farmers sowing schedules, instructed them in farming methods to adaptto saltwater intrusion and lack of water and how to prevent pest and diseaseoutbreaks.
This year the saltwater is expected one month earlier than normal, it haswarned.
Tra Vinh is among the localities hardest hit by saltwater in its rivers everyyear.
Farmers in the delta have planted nearly 1.6 million hectares of winter-springrice.
Around 400,000ha in coastal areas in Long An, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, SocTrang, Bac Lieu, and Kien Giang provinces are expected to suffer from the lackof water at the end of the crop when seawater enters rivers, according to theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Plant Protection andCultivation Department.
As they do every year, coastal provinces have repaired and upgraded irrigationworks, saltwater prevention embankments and sluices or plan to do so.
Kien Giang province is set to build or upgrade 119 temporary dams to storefreshwater for irrigation and household use during the dry season.
It expects more than 30,000 households to face a shortage.
Its Irrigation Sub-department has begun to operate the saltwater preventionsluices, including in Rach Gia city and along the Cai Be River.
Ben Tre province is building several water storage works, including the supplyclean water to people living in Minh riverine island and the Tan Phu and Ben Rosaltwater prevention sluices.
The province has petitioned the Government for funds for several irrigationprojects, including the Ben Tre water management project and Cai Be pumpingstation and pipelines.
Huynh Quang Duc, deputy director of the provincial Department of Agricultureand Rural Development, said last year the province developed a number offarming models to help farmers adapt to climate change.
They include growing organic green skin and pink flesh grapefruit in Giong Tromdistrict’s Son Phu commune and clean durian in Chau Thanh district’s Tan Phu commune.
Authorities have also taught farmers techniques to tend crops insaltwater-affected areas.
In the 2019-20 dry season the province faced severe saltwater intrusion thatcaused losses worth around 1.7 trillion VND (72 million USD) to farmers.
A salinity rate of 0.2% was recorded in most areas, enough to kill 5,400ha ofrice, damage 28,000ha of fruits and cause a water shortage for 87,000households.
Most plants can only tolerate salinity of 0.1%.
During this dry season 0.1% salinity is expected 54-68km deep upstream inrivers in February and March, according to the Ben Tre Centre for Hydro-MeteorologyForecasting./.
VNA
