Sediment loss in Mekong River killing southern delta

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The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta is home to nearly 18 million Vietnamese people, and is the most important rice field and fishing region of the country.

Vietnam cannot afford to lose it as an agricultural powerhouse, but may be unable to stop just that happening.

A recent study conducted by the Agence Francaise de Developpement (French Development Agency – AFD) and the European Union (EU) found that the Mekong River’s sediments arriving down the Cuu Long Delta fell from 65 to 75 per cent compared to the total in the 1990s, and by half over the last few years.

This sediment shortage was mostly caused by human activities in the river’s upstream, with hydropower plants sprouting up despite the protests of downstream countries like Cambodia and Vietnam. Vietnam’s own rampant sand mining in the delta’s rivers only exacerbated the situation.

The study gave a bleak forecast: the Mekong Delta is very likely to receive between 10 and 20 per cent of the nutrient-rich sediment compared to what it used to get in the last century once all the hydropower plant projects on the Mekong River are finished.

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