Focus on Arts and Ecology

The Mekong Delta is home to almost 18 million people and produces a huge amount of Vietnam's agricultural output, yet it lags well behind other regions in terms of infrastructure development.

Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people in Saigon hail from this region, and every time a national holiday rolls around there are horror stories of immense traffic jams as people leave the city to head to their home provinces, few of which are connected by highways (and none of which have train service, as the national line ends in Saigon).

A number of huge bridges have been built over branches of the Mekong River over the last decade, but these turn into bottlenecks for a sea of cars, buses and motorbikes.

The Minister of Planning and Investment recently proposed spending USD2 billion on the region, though it's not entirely clear what that would entail:VnExpress said infrastructure such as ports, railways and roads, while Tuoi Tresaid it is for fighting climate change. 

Climate change poses an acute threat to the delta, and according to this articleit's arriving even sooner than anticipated. Rising sea levels, combined with hydropower projects upstream, are wreaking havoc on farmers and their homes. I wrote about the climate change threats facing Vietnam, including the delta, for Mongabay last year.