Overcoming the siege of drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta

After hearing the guest from afar tell him why he came to Ca Mau and came to Tran Van Thoi district, the young man grinned: “Don’t call me the place where I work in the West of the river anymore. I’ll take you there and I’ll write an article in the West of the river… land, nenh!”.

His name is Liem, 20 years old, from Tran Hoi commune. I did not hide from Liem that I am a journalist. The reason I came to the locality was to see how the water in the Western region was during the drought and salty season.

But, Liem’s ​​joke took me a few seconds to figure out.

Ca Mau is not my hometown, nor is it a place I have ever been too attached to. But it’s hard to explain why this cape always gives me an indescribable feeling of closeness. In my memories of several visits, besides the love of Ca Mau people, the overflowing rivers are what I remember the most. For this reason, Liem’s ​​words make it difficult for me to imagine.

But. Indeed, Liem did not exaggerate.

Life in the most severe drought and salinity area in Ca Mau.

As soon as I ran across the bridge, the burning heat was felt more clearly. Going another 500 meters, the image of the Rach Rang River, where half a year ago I had the opportunity to ride a motorboat (motorboat) gliding faster than a motorbike on the road, is now only stranded boats. The water in the canals and creeks is only a hand’s breadth away, and both sides of the banks are dry.

Seeing my surprise, Liem smiled: “Do you see? But this is still nothing, you have to go to my house!”. Having said that, he instructed me to park the car at a roadside stall.

“This one must be able to run!”, As he spoke, Liem tapped on the head of the old Dream car.

The deeper you go, the more severe the drought and saltwater situation becomes. Liem helped me identify whether the water was fresh or salty in a simple but heartbreaking way: Any channel with water left was salt water.

The turn of a dry canal branch is the entrance to Binh Minh 2 hamlet, where Liem’s ​​house is located. At this point, the Dream was spontaneously left in the middle of the parking lot by the young man. Looking at the scene before my eyes, I had the answer to my own question.

Canals and canals have bare bottoms, the soil at the bottom is dry and cracked. The asphalt road on both sides subsided and completely collapsed. If I didn’t know in advance that it was due to the impact of drought and salinity, I really couldn’t imagine any reason why more than 10 km of asphalt road would crumble like before my eyes.

The canal no longer has a drop of water, the road is bumpy and full of pitfalls, and the two types of traffic in the hamlet are completely broken. Not only Liem, most people in the hamlet can currently only move by walking.

“It’s been since Tet, more than 2 months. The canal has dried up, causing the soil to shrink and sink.” After speaking, Liem led me down to the canal and walked. In the distance, four children were also playing tag in the canal.

The bottom of the canal now looks like a walkway that is being reclaimed into a pedestrian path. Looking from the bottom of the canal, the reality of the drought and saltwater intrusion is really clear: The stranded boats are caked with soil; Houses that just open the gate will immediately fall down because there is no road left; The gardens die, the fruit falls before it has time to grow…

A few people in the hamlet paid attention to the stranger. Seeing that, Liem quickly shouted: “The journalist came to get information about the drought, everyone!”.

Unexpectedly, with just one sentence from Liem, in less than 3 minutes, nearly a dozen people approached me. They are mostly older people, with many things that need to be expressed.

“Looking at it, you know it’s hard enough, right, but in reality it’s a thousand times worse. All kinds of hardships, not just the difficulty of traveling,” Pointing to the dilapidated road in front of his house that looked like it had just experienced an earthquake, Mr. Nguyen Minh Phuc sighed.

Most people in the hamlet live by growing rice, bananas and a few other crops. When harvested, rice is purchased by traders by river. However, last fall, right at the time of drought and saltwater intrusion, the river dried up, and rice prices were forced by traders because they had to be transported by road. A few days later, the drought and saltwater intrusion peaked, the road also collapsed, and rice prices were forced another level lower.

Mr. Phuc has a grandchild who just turned 3, and he usually takes him to kindergarten every day. But since the road broke down, the couple has no choice but to stay at home and play together.

The case of Mr. Tran Van Lam and his wife Nguyen Thi Mai is more difficult. Her family situation was already difficult. 3 years ago, Ms. Mai had a stroke, causing her health to weaken and unable to walk. Since the day she fell ill, Mr. Lam took Ms. Mai to regular acupuncture sessions in town every week. There were times when the pain came continuously, so Ms. Mai had to go for acupuncture every three days.

Therefore, the past two months of drought have been haunted by Ms. Mai’s pain that feels like cutting flesh when she cannot get to the doctor in time. As for Mr. Lam, he loves his wife but his strength cannot satisfy him.

Most people believe that the current damage is due to natural disasters, cannot be avoided and cannot be blamed on anyone.

“Last year, I was very happy that the State built this road. It’s just a shame that it hasn’t been in use for long and is facing severe drought and salinity like now,” Mr. Tien was sad.

Leaving Tran Hoi commune, I moved to Khanh Binh Dong commune. In addition to the shallow canals, the few remaining canal branches here seem to be trying to hold the last ounces of water. However, the remaining water in these canals has turned dark orange and turbid due to heavy alum contamination.

The closer you get to the commune, the fewer people’s houses become. There are even places where there are only vast amounts of bare land left, barren, cracked, without even a single house.

The rickety house made temporarily with a thatched roof and corrugated iron walls is where Mr. Vi Van Phong and his wife have lived for decades. Seeing someone coming, Mr. Phong thoughtfully took a glass of water from a 20-liter container and offered it to the guests. He took a glass of water for himself from the water jar behind the house.

Even so, I still asked permission to try the water he drank, as an experience when going to a drought-salty area.

Brackish, fishy, ​​and impossible to swallow. That’s the feeling when a sip of water just enters your mouth. Even though I tried very hard, I had to ask permission to turn away and give up my sip of water.

My confusion made Mr. Phong laugh: “You can’t drink it. In this house, only I can drink this water. My wife and grandchildren drink filtered water in bottles.”

Severe saline drought persists, 17 households in the commune no longer have running water. Up to now, although the water source from the neighboring commune has been connected, the water flow is weak, only a few dozen liters per day. The problem will not become severe if the water source is still as clean and clear as when there was no saline drought.

The water source connected from the neighboring commune is heavily contaminated with alum. Laundry can’t be cleaned, washing dishes leaves a fishy smell, and after bathing, you’re still greasy.

Immediately after the People’s Committee of Ca Mau province announced that Tran Van Thoi district was in a level 2 drought situation, in which Khanh Binh Dong commune was seriously thirsty for domestic water, 17 households here received water. Every week, the province will arrange trucks to deliver fresh water tanks to people.

“I don’t have a big tank to hold it, and it’s a long way to transport it from the water source to my house, so each time I go to get water I can only get about 3 20-liter bottles. This water is for drinking, cooking, and bathing. little one”, Mr. Phong said.

Mr. Phong led me to the not-so-better house next door. The house has no foundation and is only temporarily built from dry tree stakes. Every step makes the whole house shake. This is the residence of Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Bao, her husband and two children for the past 5 years.

Like other families in the area, Ms. Bao and her husband also use many cans and pots to store water. For every house with many children, more water must be stored. With two small children at home, there are days when Ms. Bao and her husband have to skip bathing and save water for their children.

Mr. Phong’s wife and 7-year-old child returned with a bunch of plastic cans of all sizes in their hands. The two of them called this a precious item they had just found, used to store water. The little girl has bright eyes, a chattering mouth, and is not afraid of strangers.

“Where are your parents, are they all at work?”, I asked and received a harsh answer containing: “My parents left!”.

I felt embarrassed, even though it wasn’t intentional, but I felt like I was at fault.

As if knowing my mood, Mr. Phong immediately “rescued”: “Oh, it’s nothing. His parents broke up and left the country a long time ago. My husband and I have raised him for several years now.”

When I asked about it, I found out that 7 years ago, his daughter married a young man in the village. Family circumstances are already difficult, living in this harsh natural disaster land makes life even more difficult.

For some reason, most of the people here do not have arable land and can only live by working as hired laborers. Everyone does what they hire, Mr. Phong’s daughter and his wife are no exception. Every time a drought comes, the whole region has to struggle to overcome it.

Life is difficult, nature is harsh, and Mr. Phong’s daughter and her husband have more quarrels. Until one day, the two decided to divorce. After the divorce, the two went away, leaving their 3-year-old daughter with Mr. Phong and his wife. Up to now, it has been 4 years that he and his wife have been both grandparents and parents.

Sitting next to her, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Bao sighed. Looking at the dry garden that couldn’t grow any plants next to it, she worried about the coming days for her family, worried about the dark future of her children.

“In the near future, the couple will probably plan to go to the city to rent a house and find something to do. They can work as workers or cleaners, as long as they have work and money to send the children to school. But now, there is no job. Yes, it’s very difficult to live when faced with drought and salinity like this.” worried young mother.

Thirst in this land is no longer simply thirst for fresh water or domestic water. Clearly, the impact of drought and salinity not only causes economic damage but also poses a risk of losing people’s livelihoods.

In the 2022 Mekong Delta economic report, VCCI and a group of experts from the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management also pointed out that the underemployment rate among the working age of the Mekong Delta in 2020 was 3.47%, the highest two compared to other regions nationwide, only behind the Central Highlands region. The underemployment rate in rural areas is twice as high as in urban areas (3.97% compared to 1.87%).

The main reason is that the process of mechanization and economic restructuring makes workers in the agricultural sector become redundant, while the industrial and service sectors develop slowly so they cannot absorb all of them. Another reason is that the land area for agriculture is increasingly shrinking under the impact of saline intrusion, drought,…

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung – Director of Ca Mau Provincial Irrigation Department said that this year’s drought and saltwater situation in the province is severe, especially in Sub-region III – North Ca Mau in Tran Van Thoi district.

The entire province currently has 2,620 households lacking and unable to proactively source domestic water. Areas with particularly difficult access to water sources are mainly concentrated in Tran Van Thoi, U Minh, and Thoi Binh districts with about 1,719 households, due to not being able to exploit groundwater, dry canals, and collapsed roads. Subsidence, traffic disruption…

By April 5, in the freshwater region of Tran Van Thoi district, there were 132 roads with landslides and subsidence with a total length of 15,868m. Estimated damage is about 22 billion VND. On April 10, the People’s Committee of Ca Mau province announced a level 2 drought emergency in Tran Van Thoi and U Minh districts.

In contrast to the past, the estimated damage of the entire Ca Mau province during the drought and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2015-2016 was 1,400 billion VND. That number in the dry season of 2019-2020 is 800 billion VND.