Anguish as Mekong Delta’s annual floods continue to dry up

It is time for the annual floods in the Mekong Delta, but the flooding season these days is more a cherished memory than a practical phenomenon.

One day in mid-September Cao Van Bi, 50, was rowing a boat with his wife across a paddy field that had been partially flooded.

All over the field, in Phu Hoi, a rural commune in An Giang Province’s An Phu District, traps had been set up to catch fish.

That morning the catch was 2.5 kilograms of carp and five kilograms of other fish and shrimp.

In previous years, during the flooding season, Bi would have got dozens of kilograms worth of fish every day, but these days it never exceeds 10 kg.

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Hoang Nam