Vietnam Weekly, May 22, 2020
Across southern Vietnam, there has been little to cheer about when it comes to climate and the environment recently. I've discussed the plight of the Mekong Delta before, and that is only getting worse.
Last month, officials in Tien Giang Province announced plans to spend US$17 million on a freshwater reservoir, as salt water moving upstream from the sea is rendering water in the area useless. Earlier this month, fish farms in the province experienced mass die-offs, again caused by salt water intrusion.
Meanwhile, Laos confirmed plans to build another hydropower dam on the mainstream Mekong River, to be constructed by a Chinese company. This is the sixth proposed dam of nine planned projects, two of which have already been completed.
These dams, along with the 11 on the upper Mekong in China, are holding back massive amounts of sediment needed downstream, particularly in the delta, which is now shrinking, according to a new report published by Nature.
For new readers, I'm re-upping my March article on the complex interplay of these issues and how they may spell the ultimate doom of one of the world's great agricultural regions.
Saigon, just north of the delta, faces serious climate threats as well, as outlined in a recent report from McKinsey which estimates just how much damage the city could face from future flooding if major protective steps aren't taken soon. A number of critical infrastructure projects, such as the under-construction metro system, would face severe problems from increasingly heavy rain and rising sea levels by 2050.
And to top all of this off, "The country is predicted to experience [an] increasing and complicated pattern of natural disasters this year due to the impact of global warming and melting of glaciers."
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