VN Express —
Farmers and authorities in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have started storing water, building dams and planting seeds early to avoid drought and salinity.
Living near Kenh Lap, Mekong Delta’s largest manmade reservoir in Ben Tre Province, Le Van Hao said he had witnessed how the reservoir, which has a capacity of nearly one million cubic meters, ran dry in April 2020.
That year, his family also had to buy fresh water at VND60,000 ($2.63) per cubic meter after using up all their stored reserves.
For this year’s dry season, Hao has come prepared.
“I have built eight more water tanks that could store over 10 cubic meters in total,” he said.
The management board of the lake, which lies in Phuoc Ngai Commune of Ba Tri District, said they had learned the hard way from the drought and salinity in 2020 and since last October, had already cleaned the lake and started storing freshwater.