Perhaps never before has the water issue in the Mekong Delta been as concerning as it has been for nearly a decade now. Over the past eight years, farmers’ worries over extensive inundation during the flood season have virtually become a thing of the past. In the dry season, many coastal areas rush to scoop up the scarce fresh water that remain while landslides and subsidence continue to increase. For over 300 years, Vietnamese settlers in the Mekong Delta, which was “well endowed by nature, abundant rainfall, thriving agriculture, and a riverine civilization” in the past, never have imagined facing a serious water crisis one day. The Mekong Delta, which receives approximately 450 billion cubic meters of fresh water annually before it flows into the sea, now finds itself forced to declare emergency situations regarding natural disasters and saltwater intrusion, seeking assistance for water supply from other regions, from the central Government and international organizations, in some places, at certain times. To find a solution to the water crisis in the Mekong Delta, we need to identify its causes, both primary and secondary. In fact, water sources can change spatially and temporally, and depend on water users, thus the order […]

Perhaps never before has the water issue in the Mekong Delta been as concerning as it has been for nearly a decade now. Over the past eight years, farmers’ worries over extensive inundation during the flood season have virtually become a thing of the past. In the dry season, many coastal areas rush to scoop up the scarce fresh water that remain while landslides and subsidence continue to increase. For over 300 years, Vietnamese settlers in the Mekong Delta, which was “well endowed by nature, abundant rainfall, thriving agriculture, and a riverine civilization” in the past, never have imagined facing a serious water crisis one day. The Mekong Delta, which receives approximately 450 billion cubic meters of fresh water annually before it flows into the sea, now finds itself forced to declare emergency situations regarding natural disasters and saltwater intrusion, seeking assistance for water supply from other regions, from the central Government and international organizations, in some places, at certain times. To find a solution to the water crisis in the Mekong Delta, we need to identify its causes, both primary and secondary. In fact, water sources can change spatially and temporally, and depend on water users, thus the order […]