Mekong Delta needs $6.7 billion for smart climate change projects
The Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s agriculture hub, needs $4.7 to $6.7 billion in 2021-2025 for smart projects to tackle climate change, the World Bank says.
A report released by the bank last week says there are considerable opportunities for further development of the Mekong Delta region, which spans 3.94 million hectares (9.7 acres) and is home to 17.5 million people, or a fifth of the country’s population.
However, the government needs to address several challenges the region has been facing, including inadequate infrastructure and market access, fluctuations in water availability, weak inter-provincial coordination, pollution, energy constraints and, especially, climate change impacts.
The Mekong Delta is identified as one of the deltas in the world that is most vulnerable to climate change, the report says. According to the 2016 climate change projections issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, approximately 40 percent of the region is exposed to significant inundation risk under current conditions.
Hoang Vu
