On November 29, in Can Tho City, the Forum "Improving community capacity in disaster prevention in the Mekong Delta" took place.
According to statistics from the Southern Institute of Water Resources Planning, there are 8 types of natural disasters that often occur in the Mekong Delta: drought, saltwater intrusion; floods, inundation; riverbank and coastal erosion; heavy rain; heat waves; storms, tropical depressions; thunderstorms, lightning; and natural forest fires. These types of natural disasters have seriously affected people's lives, especially rural communities that are heavily dependent on agriculture.
Typically, in the dry season of 2023 - 2024, drought and saltwater intrusion caused 1,189 hectares of rice to have reduced productivity, 43 hectares of rice (out of plan) in Soc Trang province were completely lost; about 73,900 households were affected by lack of domestic water. The Mekong Delta has 2,059 subsidence points (equivalent to 51km of dike length, rural roads); 686 riverbank landslide locations (length of 591.3km) and 57 coastal landslide locations (length of 203.2km).
The whole region currently has 15 irrigation systems (7 inter-provincial and 8 intra-provincial) serving 2.5 million hectares of agricultural production and people's lives.
With the goal of sustainable development of the Mekong Delta and adaptation to climate change, in recent times, through Resolutions of the Party and the Government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued many strategies, plans, and plans for natural disaster prevention for the Mekong Delta region such as: Vietnam's irrigation development strategy to 2030, vision to 2045; National Strategy on natural disaster prevention and control for the period 2021 - 2030, vision to 2050;...
At the Forum, experts and researchers from institutes and professional agencies continued to provide presentations on an overview of the natural disaster situation in the Mekong Delta; strategies, planning, and plans for natural disaster prevention; response solutions;... in the coming time.
Mr. Le Thanh Chuong (Southern Institute of Water Resources Research) acknowledged that river banks and coasts in the Mekong Delta are undergoing strong changes in morphology, affecting economic, social and environmental activities. To effectively protect river banks and coasts, it is necessary to consider combining many different solutions, including hard engineering solutions, soft solutions, combined solutions and management solutions. In particular, promoting the implementation of non-engineering solutions, re-planning residential areas along eroded river banks and coasts, on the basis of comparing the costs of relocation and construction of works to make appropriate decisions; For hard engineering solutions and beach nourishment solutions, there need to be pilot research projects to monitor and evaluate effectiveness;...
"Complete and implement the legal framework on riverbank and coastal management, specifically the establishment and implementation of shore protection corridors, which stipulate reasonable setbacks in the construction of infrastructure works and land use planning," Mr. Chuong recommended.
