The Mekong Delta is known as the land of “Gao trang, nuoc trong” (white rice and clear waters) and the country’s largest rice, fruit and fisheries producer. Yet, the region is experiencing the most serious drought in nearly a century, while struggling simultaneously with saline intrusion. The river water has become salty, canals are drying up and fields are chapped and barren with a layer of salt. The shortage of fresh water not only damages rice farming areas but also causes tremendous difficulties for residents. Farmers’ lives are seriously affected by drought and saltwater intrusion Every March a few years ago, farmers in the Mekong Delta prepared for harvesting the spring-winter rice crop. However, this year’s crop has been damaged by a long and intense drought and saline intrusion which also seriously affect the locals’ lives and the family of Truong Quoc Thanh is an example. Six years ago, the family of Thanh, a native of An Giang, leased 20ha of land for rice farming in Kien Thanh Hamlet, Kien Binh Commune, Kien Luong District, Kien Giang Province. His family had bumper crops and had high profits for five years but this year his paddies might be lost and his family will become penniless for sure. At the time when rice seedlings were going to sprout grains, they suffered the prolonged drought and then saline intrusion, thereby becoming faded and withered. Thanh said sadly: “There is water in the canals but I did not dare pump it into the fields…
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