News
Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems

Early this year, many Mekong Delta farmers fought a losing battle against an epic drought, the worst since 1926. Was the drought a harbinger of climate change? Perhaps it was, but more certainly it was an artifact of El Niño. The same ocean-warming phenomenon that ...
Rivers, canals gradually dying in Mekong River Delta

Rivers and canals in the southwestern region are becoming depleted as they are not regularly dredged and cleared, and are encroached upon by people’s housing. There are 26 seaports, big and small in Mekong Delta. The dredging capability and canal network in the region are factors ...
Drought devastates local shrimp industry

This year’s prolonged drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta has destroyed more than 81,000 hectares of prime shrimp breeding areas in eight provinces, says the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Shrimp farmers in Ca Mau Province in the very south of the country, ...
Mekong Delta region awaits floods

The Mekong Delta, the rice, seafood and fruit granary of the country, is facing landslides and sinking, as it no longer receives enough silt because of limited floodwaters. “We have been living here for several generations and we have never seen such poor floodwaters until the ...
Mekong Delta needs $4bn for transport infrastructure

The Transport Development and Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Transport has recently proposed mobilizing over $4 billion to develop infrastructure and logistics systems in the Mekong Delta during the 2016-2020 period. The Delta needs $3.2 billion for 39 road transport projects, $806 million for 23 ...
Vietnamese farmers indignant as Mekong Delta prays for flood waters to arrive

Fishermen in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have been complaining about lower water levels and falling catches with experts blaming China’s construction of hydropower projects on the upper Mekong River. According to the experts, the dams have blocked fish from moving downstream and trapped sediment needed to enrich ...