Serious landslides, 2,500 households in Ca Mau need urgent relocation

Traffic cut off, houses lost due to landslides at night

The landslide in the early morning of April 24th in Dam Doi commune caused the concrete road to collapse into the river, causing traffic to be cut off. At about 4 am on April 24th, a serious landslide occurred on the Dam Doi river section passing through Hamlet 1, Dam Doi commune, Dam Doi district, Ca Mau province. The scene recorded a landslide section about 60m long, deep into the mainland about 20m, completely collapsing a 3m wide concrete road section, causing people's travel to be interrupted. The landslide also damaged the property of some households and businesses along the river, including 1 cargo crane wharf, 1 ice production facility and 1 animal feed and aquatic veterinary medicine business agency. Initial total damage is estimated at more than 3 billion VND. Worryingly, many new cracks continue to appear along the river.

Local authorities assess that there is still a risk of further landslides with a length of about 20-30m. Immediately after the incident, Dam Doi commune authorities set up barriers, planted dangerous warning signs, and at the same time supported people to move property and machinery out of unsafe areas. The locality continues to monitor the landslide developments and proposes to higher authorities to soon invest in a landslide prevention embankment project to protect people's lives and property.

Previously, the landslide on the morning of April 21, in hamlet 13, Tan Thanh ward, Ca Mau province (nearly 30m long, more than 12m deep into the mainland) caused 4 houses to collapse completely, and 2 adjacent houses were seriously affected and had to be urgently relocated.

Ca Mau is a province bordered by the sea on three sides, with a dense system of rivers and canals. This is an advantage for developing aquaculture economy and waterway trade, but it also makes the locality frequently face the risk of landslides.

From the beginning of 2026 to now, widespread landslides have occurred in Ca Mau. Functional sectors assess that prolonged drought, low water levels, coupled with pumping for agricultural production, have caused many canals and ditches to dry out, weak soil foundations and easily crack.

Not only riverbank erosion, the coastal area of Ca Mau is also under great pressure. More than 110km of coastline is seriously eroded, in some places the sea encroaches deep into the mainland from 20-50m each year. Many areas of protection forest are swept away, and sea dikes are facing the risk of being threatened.

The whole province currently has about 6,700 households living along rivers and canals that need to be relocated to new residences. Among them, the most are coastal areas such as U Minh, Tran Van Thoi, Phu Tan, Nam Can, Ngoc Hien and Dam Doi.

The province prioritizes relocating more than 1,000 households who have lost their homes or are living temporarily, and at the same time continues to review more than 3,000 households living in riverbank areas with dangerous landslides and concentrated residential areas that are directly threatened. More than 2,500 households living in areas at medium or high risk of landslides or frequent flooding also need to be arranged safe accommodation in the next roadmap.

Need fundamental solutions for the land at the end of the sky

To respond to the increasingly complex landslide situation, Ca Mau is implementing many short-term and long-term solutions. At key inter-field points, the locality uses melaleuca piles and soil sacks to temporarily reinforce and prevent landslides from spreading. After the terrain stabilizes, solid embankments will be invested to protect residents and infrastructure.

For coastal areas, the province focuses resources on investing in breakwater projects to cause siltation, create beaches, restore protection forests, and at the same time coordinate with ministries and sectors to accelerate the progress of sea dike projects to protect production and people's lives. However, construction solutions only solve a part, more importantly, restructuring residents in high-risk areas, gradually removing people from dangerous areas.

In 2025, the province issued a project to relocate works and houses along rivers and canals of households and individuals in the area. According to the plan, by 2040, the locality will complete relocation and resettlement for 10,698 households with a total estimated cost of more than 23,188 billion VND.