Local authorities in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta have declared an emergency as erosion along rivers and coasts in many localities has increased.

The delta, which is the country’s largest rice, fruit and seafood producer, has 751 eroded areas with a total length of 976 km, according to the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority.

About 20,000 households in the city of Can Tho and the provinces of Dong Thap, An Giang, Vinh Long and Ca Mau are living in erosion-prone areas and need to be relocated to safe areas, it said.

It is the peak of the rainy season, and erosion along the Tien and Hau rivers, two tributaries of the Mekong River, is occurring continuously.

In Can Tho, there have been nine erosion cases with a total length of 268 metres so far this year, according to the city’s Irrigation Sub-department.

The city is building 15 kilometres of river embankments to prevent erosion in dangerously eroded places.

It will implement an embankment project costing VND272 billion (US$11 million) to prevent erosion along the Tra Noc River in Binh Thuy District. The project will build a 2,000 metre-long embankment along the river in 2022-2025.

In the southernmost province of Ca Mau, its People’s Committee has announced an erosion emergency at a western sea dyke section in Tran Van Thoi and U Minh districts.

In July 11, strong waves caused by winds and high tides eroded three places with a combined length of 110 metres along the dyke.

The sea dyke section has five deeply eroded places with a total length of 2,692 metres, which threatens the safety of agricultural production and local people, according to local authorities.

Infrastructure facilities such as power networks, national heritage sites and schools near the erosion are facing danger, they said.

Ca Mau has more than 100 eroded places with a total length of thousands of metres.

The province People’s Committee has ordered relevant departments, agencies and localities to implement urgent erosion preventing measures to mitigate damage.

The province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was told to co-operate with relevant agencies to mobilise for emergency search and rescue cases.

They should relocate households in dangerously eroded and erosion-prone places to safe areas, said the province People’s Committee.

They should install warning boards and ban vehicle travel at eroded places, it said.

Nguyen Long Hoai, head of the province Irrigation Sub-department, said the sub-department has used rock bags to prevent further erosion at dangerously eroded places at the western sea dyke.

Eroded sea dyke sections which do not have protective forests need concrete embankments to protect the dyke and recover protective forests, he said.

In Dong Thap Province, local authorities have declared an emergency due to erosion along the Tien River in Lap Vo District’s Tan My and My An communes that threatens the safety of 500 households and 20 production establishments.

The province is taking procedures to build an erosion prevention embankment project along the Tien River in the two communes.

The project will cost VND399 billion ($17 million), including VND290 billion from the central budget.

In Tien Giang Province, erosion has occurred along rivers and canals in flood-prone areas in its western districts and towns.

The localities have had four erosion cases with a total length of nearly 500 metres this year.

They have spent about VND7.6 billion ($325,000) to solve the erosion cases, according to the province People’s Committee.

The province has petitioned the Government to allocate VND673 billion ($28.7 million) to implement four erosion prevention projects along rivers and coasts. 

Source: Vietnam News