Solutions for water resources in the Mekong Delta: Why is salinity more severe?

At the beginning of the conference, journalist Tran Xuan Toan introduced clips from the newspaper’s actual survey trip Youth on April 25. That is the specific case of Mr. Lam Tuan Kiet, 32 years old in Dong Hung B commune, An Minh district, Kien Giang.

Every month, Mr. Kiet has to spend about 22 million VND to buy water and buy a jar to store water for daily use. He also had to use tarpaulin to create a “reservoir” to wash the salty water source, but the bottom of the tarpaulin was packed with salt in layers.

In the past “living with floods”, now “living with drought and salinity”

Mr. Kiet lives mainly growing rice and raising crabs, but this rice crop cannot be grown, and the crabs cannot achieve good yields due to not having the best farming conditions.

“Hundreds of thousands of farmers in the coastal region of the Mekong Delta (Mekong Delta) are facing severe drought and saltwater intrusion like Mr. Kiet. It’s too hot, they have to hide at home and can’t do anything. Even if they want to produce, they can’t do anything. cannot.

Previously, we often talked about the Mekong Delta with the phrase living with floods in the Mekong Delta, but now we have to switch to the phrase living with drought and salinity. This is the reason for the report Youth and agencies, experts, and local leaders participating in promoting solutions to find water sources for the Mekong Delta, finding ways to cope with drought and salinity in particular and cope with climate change in general.” , Mr. Toan said.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Nguyen Hong Hieu – Deputy Director of the Department of Water Resources Management, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment – brought up the major challenges of the Mekong Delta today such as surface water resources mainly depending on foreign countries because A series of hydroelectric projects and water transfer projects have been and are being implemented.

Besides surface water resources being unevenly distributed over space and time, the Mekong Delta is being strongly impacted by climate change, with drought and increasingly severe saltwater intrusion.

Along with that are the problems of flow reduction, saltwater intrusion and the risk of cross-border pollution, pressure on population growth and socio-economic development.

We should strengthen natural solutions to live with drought and salinity

According to Mr. Hieu, the immediate solution is to continue to closely monitor and continuously update warning bulletins and forecast developments in meteorological, hydrological, drought, and lack of water and saltwater intrusion situations.

Effectively operate irrigation systems and works to collect water, proactively store water to ensure that it meets the minimum need for irrigation water for crops to limit damage.

At the same time, we must mobilize people to use water economically, keep water sources clean, have flexible ways to store fresh water, and avoid wasting fresh water resources. Changing seasons and crop structure to limit damage caused by drought and salinity…

In the long term, Mr. Hieu proposed many solutions, including special attention in the process of investment and development of industries that must comply with plans related to the Mekong Delta region approved by the Prime Minister, in particular, Note the development orientation of industries suitable for ecological zones (salt water, brackish water, fresh water) indicated in the plans and Resolution 120 of the Government.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Anh Tuan – senior lecturer at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources (Can Tho University) emphasized that we have wasted a lot of water resources while implementing drought prevention solutions. salty.

“Previously when planning in the Mekong Delta, the ancients created vertical and horizontal meridian systems in the provinces of An Giang, Kien Giang and Ca Mau…, along with meridians connecting stars to form Nga Nam intersections. (Soc Trang) and Nga Sau and Nga Bay (Hau Giang). This has helped disperse salinity not to penetrate deeply.

Meanwhile, the more we block salinity through structures, the tidal energy does not disperse but remains the same and pushes the salinity even higher, deeper into inland areas.

The sluice prevents salinity when we close it and also retains polluted freshwater streams. Why is it that the more we fight salinity, the more severe it becomes?”, Mr. Tuan said.

According to Mr. Tuan, having natural solutions is something we must pay attention to in order to maintain water source security.

The solution Mr. Tuan proposed are general solutions such as cutting down on industrial production with high waste discharge levels and strengthening related legislation to control water sources.

Regularly monitor transboundary water issues in the basin, strengthen water resource conservation and rational water use, share water source information widely, and modernize the water source monitoring system.

Specifically about overcoming drought and salinity, Mr. Tuan said that it is necessary to restore the ability to absorb and store natural water in low-lying areas, build flood water reservoirs and rainwater containers, and build treatment plants. Treat saltwater into fresh water, limit groundwater exploitation, convert rice-crop areas to aquaculture and save water, and encourage the use of circulating water.