Ben Tre province is speeding up work on irrigation projects to keep out saltwater during the upcoming dry season (Photo: VNA)Ben Tre (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre will step up measuresover the next five years to cope with saltwater intrusion in its rivers during thedry season, according to the provincial People’s Committee.
The coastalprovince, one of the delta’s hardest hit by saltwater intrusion, is spending 8.4trillion VND (362.8 million USD) to set up irrigation projects to preventsaltwater intrusion and store freshwater for agricultural production andhousehold use in 2019-2023.
In the firstphase of the Northern Ben Tre Irrigation Project 45 saltwater preventionsluices and river bank embankment sections will be built along the Tien and HamLuong rivers in the districts of Chau Thanh, Giong Trom and Binh Dai and BenTre city this year.
The Kenh Cu sluicewill be built in Ben Tre city and an embankment along the Ham Luong River fromthe Cai Mit sluice to the Cau Kinh sluice in Giong Trom district next year.
The SouthernBen Tre Irrigation Project will see 11 saltwater prevention sluices built nextyear.
In 2022-2023,under the Ben Tre Water Management Project, the Tan Phu, Ben Ro and An Hoasaltwater prevention sluices will be built in Chau Thanh district, the Ben Tresluice in Ben Tre city and others in the districts of Giong Trom, Mo Cay Namand Mo Cay Bac.
The provinceplans to build the Lac Dia Reservoir in Ba Tri district to store 2.3 millioncubic metres of freshwater at an estimated 352 billion VND (15.2 million USD).
The People’sCommittee has ordered proactive measures to prevent saltwater intrusion bybuilding irrigation projects and through non-construction measures.
Vice Chairmanof the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Huu Lap said the province wouldcontinue to expand its ‘Dong Khoi stores rainwater, freshwater’ movementlaunched in 2016.
The movementencourages households, organisations and companies to instal containers tostore water in the dry season, he said.
Localitieshave speeded up dredging of irrigation canals and upgrades to water supplyfacilities to finish the work before the upcoming dry season.
The provincehas drawn up schedules for growing rice and other crops in each locality duringthe dry season to cope with saltwater intrusion which has become more and moresevere in recent years.
While inpast years it lasted around three months, last year, for instance, it lastedaround five months.
The upcomingdry season is expected to be very bad because of low rainfall this year in theMekong River basin.
Ben Tre hasundertaken many saltwater prevention projects in recent years that have helpedmitigate the impacts of saltwater intrusion on agriculture and people’s lives.
It has morethan 477km of axis canals and grade-1 canals, and 2,238km of grade-2and -3 canals.
It has 148saltwater prevention sluices with a width of more than two metres and 1,906with a width of less than 1.5m. It also has 650km of sea and river dykes.
However,construction of irrigation projects is not complete and so localities cannottotally mitigate the impacts of the saltwater intrusion yet, according to thePeople’s Committee.
A salinityrate of two grammes per litre affected the entire province during the lastdry season, but most plants can only tolerate up to one gramme./.
VNA
