Experts call for water storage for Mekong Delta
Environmentalists have underscored the importance of finding ways to store and share water resources in the Mekong Delta as climate change is inflicting huge damage on the arable delta. At a seminar in Can Tho City on January 10, they agreed this was a measure to cushion impacts of drought and saltwater intrusion on the delta, the nation’s key rice producing area. Le Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Institute for Climate Change Research at Can Tho University, told the Daily on the sidelines of the seminar on water storage for the delta that as many provinces in the delta have been racing to increase rice crops and build dykes to store water for the third rice crop of a year for food security. However, this has led to soil for rice production being degraded in the region. Tuan urged local authorities to adopt new farming approaches since soil in the delta has become less fertile than before, climate change has taken a toll on farmers and water resources have been depleted by more hydropower damming in the upper reaches of the Mekong River.
