Erosion is ever-increasingly 'deforming the
delta', leaving its 20 million residents at risk. A commune in Viet Nam's
southern province of An Giang believes it will need a lot of time to recover
after erosion pulled 16 houses into a river last weekend and is threatening to
destroy around 100 others. “I can still see them shaking and falling into the
river every time I close my eyes,” one woman said. “It was terrifying. People
just ran for their lives. Some fell over and hit their heads,” she said,
recalling the chaos that occurred in My Hoi Dong Commune, Cho Moi District on
April 22nd. The erosion stretched over more than 160 meters (525 feet) along
the Vam Nao River, and spread 50 meters inland. There are no guarantees that
the disaster is over, while authorities are still struggling to deal with the
aftermath. Families who lost their homes are staying at an elementary school
that has been temporarily closed to students. “Our house is gone. I don’t know
where we’re going to live," said Tran Van Bi. People in nearby houses are
not getting a good night's sleep either. Many have moved out, but keep coming
back to check on their properties. Erosion is a problem for the entire Mekong
Delta, Viet Nam's food basket which grows half of its rice output and supplies
90 percent of the country's annual grain exports. The collapses in An Giang are
a stark reminder of the underlying issue. Dr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of
the Institute for Climate Change Research at the Mekong Delta-based Can Tho
University, said coastal erosion has been affecting An Giang for the past
decade, but it's impacts are becoming frequently more serious. “The entire
Mekong Delta is facing the risk of landslides and erosion,” Tuan told VnExpress
International. He blamed the problem on “excessive sand exploitation” for
construction, and the development of hydropower plants further up the Mekong
River which prevent sand and sediment from flowing downstream. In the delta’s
southernmost province of Ca Mau, thousands of coastal families feel threatened
every day. Mangrove forests that once protected them have all gone. Many locals
have given up their long-time habit of living by the sea and rivers, as erosion
can kill anytime. More than 30 houses in the province’s Dam Doi District were
swallowed by a river in 2008 and 2010, and another disaster in Nam Can District
killed a family of four while they were sleeping in 2007. To Quoc Nam, Deputy
Director of Ca Mau’s agriculture department, said the province is losing more
than 450 hectares (110 acres) of land to the sea every year. The neighboring
province of Bac Lieu has also relocated thousands of coastal families in recent
years at threat from erosion. Dong Thap Province has spent VND9 billion (USD400,000)
fixing the banks of the Tien River, one of two tributaries to the Mekong in Viet
Nam, after erosion ate into more than 25 meters of the river bank in 2014. But
the money has not ended the problem. The future of the delta, home to around 20
million people, is threatened by urbanization and dozens of dams upstream, with
more in the pipeline. Flooding and droughts that have led to salination, along
with rising sea levels, should also be considered for the region's development,
the World Bank has said. Tuan from Can Tho University said erosion is
“deforming the delta”. The problem needs sustainable solutions, including an
end to sand exploitation, which will require cooperation with neighboring
Cambodia where sand is also being exploited for export to Singapore, he said. “It
takes 20 to 30 years for sand to travel downstream,” he said. Viet Nam needs to
increase forestation and shore up its river embankments. Groundwater exploitation
needs to be watched, and we should speak out against the rush of hydropower
development in the Mekong region. For now, he said, a map should be drawn up to
highlight the most dangerous areas and relocate people accordingly.
E.vnexpress.net
– April 25 - http://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-s-mekong-delta-residents-trembling-after-river-swallows-houses-3575590.html;
Tuoi Tre News – April 25 - http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/40679/riverbank-collapse-scares-mekong-delta-residents
Viet Nam's Mekong Delta residents trembling after river swallows houses
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