Vietnam’s Mekong Delta threatened by rising sea levels • FRANCE 24 English

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta threatened by rising sea levels • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] The water tastes bad. This farmer in southern Vietnam has seen his rice yields drop steadily over the past 5 years. He lost 40% of his harvest last year alone. Salt water from the sea has now reached our fields, damaging the rice plants and their grains. It destroys the whole crop. The rice here is ruined. Look at this. It looks so weak. Rice patties contaminated by salt become infertile. And in this part of Vietnam, climate change is to blame. Sea levels are rising between 3 and 5 mm a year. As a result, salt water is seeping further in land and across the flat plains of the Mikong Delta. The 18 to 20 million Vietnamese who live on or around the Meong Delta rely on it for their livelihoods. Seawater isn’t just threatening rice. Fish are at risk, too. A university in southern Vietnam is studying these changes in partnership with a French agricultural research institute. We capture the fish um with different types of salinities and after that the fish can be uh show the adaptations the changes in refinement uh with the different types of salinities. They combine laboratory research and field work. These scientists make regular boat trips to a small island where they’ve uncovered another problem. Rising water temperatures again driven by the climate crisis. and they’re worried as warmer water is leading to the extinction of certain species of fish. It’s the experiment uh for the strike catfish. Here they’re focusing on catfish, the delta’s most recognizable fish. In 2024, Vietnam produced around 1.6 million tons of catfish. That’s 42% of the global catch. For pangas the highest acceptable range of temperature is 35° centigrade. Last two years we have been monitoring uh pangasia pond water temperature in Vietnam and Cambodia. And what we have noticed that during the summer it goes up to 37° so 2° higher than the maximum tolerance level. [Music] In response to rising sea temperatures, many Delta residents are turning to a new form of aquaculture. It’s a sustainable alternative for farmers who can no longer grow rice. In Camal Province, vast aquaculture farms cover more than 300,000 hectares of land that was once used to grow rice. In these ponds, algae help cool the water while fish and shrimp are raised together. It’s a self- sustaining ecosystem in which each species supports the other. When shrimp produce waste, we recover it along with the water from their ponds which contains nutrients. We then pump that water into the fish tank. The algae continue to purify it and soon it becomes clear again. This former rice farmer is in no doubt that aquaculture is the key to survival in the Meong Delta. It provides a stable income higher than rice farming and isn’t as susceptible to climate change. The Meong is battling two crises: rising sea levels and a worsening shortage of fresh water. Its plight is being made worse by huge dams that have been built upstream closer to the river’s source. This expert points in the direction of China, although he doesn’t mention it by name. Some upstream countries have built hydroelectric dams. This drastically alters the river’s natural flow and reduces the amount of sediment reaching the lower delta. As a result, the farmland downstream is becoming less and less fertile. The message from scientists is clear. Saving the Meong Delta is an environmental emergency. At stake are the livelihoods of more than 60 million people across Asia who depend directly on the mother of all rivers.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is under serious threat from climate change. The agricultural region, which produces half of the country’s food supply, is being hit hard by rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion, which devastate rice crops. The landscape is changing, and with it, the delicate balance of an entire ecosystem. FRANCE 24’s William de Tamaris, Aruna Popuri, Melodie Sforza and Justin McCurry report. 
#Vietnam #MekongDelta #environment

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