Vietnam News 7 Jan 10;
HA NOI — Serious drought in the north and rising sea levels in the south may cause significant losses to farmers in the winter-spring harvest, according to a forecast by the National Centre for Hydrometeorology Forecasting.
Impacts from El Nino would continue to influence the country until April, said Le Thanh Hai, director of the centre.
"As a result, rainfall in northern provinces will continue to decrease by 20 to 30 per cent," he said.
Nearly 12 per cent of the country’s winter-spring rice harvest will be seriously affected by drought, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). The lack of rain will reduce productivity and may even result in a bad harvest for nearly 80,000ha out of 627,000ha of the nation’s rice.
In Yen Bai Province, a lack of water has affected more than 1,000ha of rice and other crops because many of its mountainous districts do not have reservoirs.
Residents in the province have had to plant other types of crops such as maize, peanuts and beans.
Reservoirs in Hai Duong Province, one of the country’s major rice suppliers, have reached critical levels. Some 2,000ha of rice in the province have been predicted to lack water for growing.
Pham Ngoc Thuoc, director of the Phu Tho Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that reservoir water levels in the province currently reached only 80 per cent of their designed capacity.
For example, the Hoa Binh Water Reservoir is currently short of 354 million cubic metres of water, the Thac Ba Reservoir lacks more than 1,000 million cubic metres and the Tuyen Quang Reservoir lacks 978 million cubic metres.
In order to deal with this problem, MARD has ordered authorities in affected provinces to improve their irrigation infrastructure and mobilise people to help dredge canals.
During a fact-finding visit to the province yesterday, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc asked Hoa Binh Province to closely monitor water sources in order to help its districts deal with the drought.
Hoc also asked the province to take the initiative to mobilise an anti-drought fund for mitigation measures and to submit timely reports to the Government for supplemental funds if necessary.
He said the province must change to drought-resistant crops and provide financial support to local farmers when they make the change.
According to the Hoa Binh Province Agriculture and Rural Development Department, up to 4,000ha out of total 6,500ha of rice under cultivation in the province will be seriously affected by the drought.
As many as 500ha has already been changed to the cultivation of cereal crops. The province hopes to ensure adequate water supply for the rest.
Department deputy director Quach Tu Hai said the province was intensifying efforts to repair irrigation infrastructure and water pumps to deal with the drought.
In Ha Noi, the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will install 192 water pumps to deal with drought.
The department has also called on farmers to plant drought-resistant crops like peanuts and maize.
The capital’s finance, and agriculture and rural development sectors have proposed that the city invest VND58 billion (US$3 million) on constructing irrigation infrastructure.
Salination
Meanwhile, the rising sea level has increased salinity in 53 Mekong (Cuu Long) Delta communes, according to the Southern Hydrographic and Meteorology Forecast Station.
More than 1,200ha of rice in Bac Lieu Province was recently damaged from high salt concentrations in irrigation water.
Soc Trang Province was also affected by drought and salinity. Nearly 40,000ha of the summer-autumn rice crop in the province was affected.
A project is currently under construction that will help separate salt water from fresh water.
"Although it won’t be operational during this year’s dry season, when complete it is expected to facilitate production for more than 150,000ha of cultivation land," said Nguyen Van Minh, an official of Bac Lieu Province.
In An Giang Province’s Tan Chau District and Chau Doc Town, the water level has already dropped below last year’s dry season.
According to the Irrigation Department in Hau Giang Province, the Hau River will decrease by 0.9 metres, the largest drop in the province.
The station’s forecast shows that many provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta won’t have enough water for irrigation, with river flows expected to reduce to only 600cu.m per second, a 200cu.m per second drop from normal.
Salination will continue to hit 12 communes and towns in Long My and Vi Thuy districts in Hau Giang, Ben Tre, An Giang and Bac Lieu provinces.
The salination rate will increase during the months of the dry season and 800,0000ha have been predicted to suffer from the effects by March.
Authorities in these provinces are struggling with the decision to open or close their irrigation dikes; if they are closed, there won’t be enough water for shrimp farming, while opening them will salinate hundreds of hectares of rice paddies. — VNS
