Viet Nam, Flooding in Southern Vietnam

HCM CITY — The annual flooding in the Mekong Delta has damaged more than 2,000ha of rice this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Water Resources. More than 1,270ha of the crop in An Giang Province, 316ha in Kiên Giang and 182ha in Đồng Tháp were totally destroyed while 265ha in Đồng Tháp and 24ha in Long An were damaged. Most of the destroyed and damaged fields are in areas without embankments while the rest were damaged because their embankments were broken or too low. High tides too have been affecting agricultural production in the region, especially in Bến Tre and Sóc Trăng provinces and Cần Thơ City. Nguyễn Văn Tâm, director of the Kiên Giang Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that in order to cope with the flooding, delta provinces and Cần Thơ have plans in place this year to prevent damages before and during the season. They have consolidated embankments in many places to protect the summer-autumn and autumn-winter rice crops, he said. Local authorities have stepped up dissemination of information about the flood situation to help farmers keep losses to the minimum. They have helped farmers harvest the summer-autumn rice crop early in places where embankments are weak or low to avoid losses due to floods. The flooding caused by the rising levels in the Mekong River during the rainy season is declining now and will not have cause further damage to agricultural production, according to the directorate. However, in the remaining months of the year, high tides would increase the water level in rice fields along rivers in the delta’s central and coastal areas and cause inundation, it warned. The directorate has told the delta’s provinces and Cần Thơ to carefully monitor tides next month. They should regularly inspect and strengthen embankments in areas where the water level is high to avoid damage to crops, it said. — VNS