In the middle of the saltwater intrusion season, Tra Vinh’s soil is still fertile thanks to good prevention

It can be said that Tra Vinh is one of the “outposts” affected by saltwater intrusion. Salt water penetrates into Tra Vinh province through three main estuaries: Co Chien River, Hau River and Long Toan River.

The fields still have enough water for cultivation

The 2024 dry season, because it is located adjacent to the sea, Tra Vinh province will be affected quite early, just entering December 2023. By the early days of March 2024, salinity on Hau and Co Chien river branches increased and has persisted to this day.

At Tra Vinh, Duc My, Cau Quan, measured salinity ranges from 6.8 to more than 10‰. However, what surprised people in many localities in the West is that this year’s dry season most of the crop and livestock areas in Tra Vinh province are still safely protected.

Farmer Nguyen Van Nhan (42 years old, living in Tan Hoa commune, Tieu Can district) happily said that this year’s Winter-Spring rice crop was more productive than previous years. The family has just finished harvesting more than 5 hectares of rice, minus expenses, the profit is more than 30 million VND.

Mr. Nhan said that thanks to the guaranteed irrigation system, this year people no longer worry about lack of irrigation water or saltwater intrusion in the dry season, but mainly focus on taking care of and managing pests and diseases to achieve high productivity. than.

Mr. Diep Nhu Binh – Director of Tra Vinh Provincial Irrigation Department – said that although the drought and saltwater situation is currently severe, thanks to the province’s agricultural sector, it has proactively deployed synchronous solutions right from the beginning of the season. dried.

50 sluices to completely prevent salinity

Currently, 50/50 main sewers in the province are completely closed to prevent saltwater intrusion. In addition, in order to ensure enough fresh water, the functional branches have operated pumping stations to pump fresh water to serve the Dong-Spring rice growing area of ​​Tra Cu district and part of Chau Thanh, Cau Ngang, Duyen Hai districts. , basically meeting enough water to serve the production needs of nearly 26,000 hectares.

“Previously, Tra Cu district was the province most severely affected by drought and saltwater intrusion, often lacking water for irrigation in the dry season. However, since the February 3 Canal pumping station was completed and put into operation in August 2022, the locality has proactively had a fresh water source to irrigate more than 13,200 hectares of rice cultivation and about 6,000 hectares of vegetable crops. Winter spring.

Canal 3/February pumping station has a capacity of 20m³/s with a total investment of more than 244 billion VND,” Mr. Binh said.

Also follow Director of the Irrigation Department of Tra Vinh province, in the coming time, Tra Vinh province will continue to invest, upgrade and repair dykes of irrigation works in the province to promptly serve production for the people.

For areas that do not ensure fresh water sources for rice production, the agricultural sector encourages people to change their crop structure to adapt.

Along with proactively opening the main sluice gates on the Hau River and Co Chien River sides to take fresh water into the field to store water, so far, saltwater intrusions have not affected production and people’s livelihood in the area. In the province, water sources in infield canals are still basically guaranteed for production.