HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Local authorities in the Mekong Delta aretaking serious measures to prevent flooding caused by high tides during theannual flood season in the area.

The delta’s provinces, and especially Can Tho city, have beenseverely affected by high tides over the past few days.

Many roads in the inner city have been flooded withrecord-high tides of 2.21m measured at the Hau River station, which surpassedthe alarm level three by 0.31m.

The peak tide is forecast to reach 2.2 to 2.25m (higher thanalarm level three by 0.3-0.35m) soon. The official alarm level for naturaldisasters caused by high tides could reach the third level. 

Flooding has also occurred in Vinh Long and Soc Trangprovinces. National Highway 1A (Can Tho - Vinh Long, Hau Giang - Soc Trangsections) was seriously flooded, affecting the lives of tens of thousands oflocal people.

Within a few days, floods caused overflows at 134 dredgingdykes and embankments measuring a total length of more than 93,000m.

In the region, as many as 54 dykes with a total length of837m have overflowed, while 23 dykes at least 151m long in total have been damaged.

More than 650ha of fruit orchards have been flooded, and morethan 41ha of vegetables submerged in water.

As many as 45ha of fish ponds were flooded, with estimatedlosses of 3.4 billion VND (151,000 USD).

Floods have caused damage to 113m of embankments in Can Thothis year, affecting 37ha of rice fields and 91ha of vegetables and cash crops,reducing yields, according to the city’s Steering Committee for NaturalDisaster Prevention and Control, Search and Rescue.

High tides also caused 8.5 tonnes of fish and other aquaticspecies in ponds to escape into rivers and canals, according to localauthorities.

Dao Anh Dung, Vice Chairman of the Can Tho city People’sCommittee, said the historic peak tide of 2.25m was unprecedented. The highestprevious tide level in Can Tho was 2.15m.

He said the city did not have effective solutions to preventheavy flooding.

Flooding in Can Tho will not be resolved until 2021, when theCan Tho Urban Development Resilience Project for Vietnam is expected to becompleted.

The project has a total investment of 322 million USD, ofwhich 250 million USD comes from a World Bank loan, 10 million USD from anon-refundable loan from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) - aSwiss Government Agency, and the remaining from reciprocal capital from theVietnamese Government.

The project has three components, including flood control andenvironmental sanitation control; urban development; and urban management toadapt to climate change.

It also includes construction of embankments and culverts.

Experts attributed flooding in urban areas to rising floodwaters in the upstream section of the Mekong River, causing high water levelsin the downstream region, including in Can Tho city and Hau Giang, Vinh Longand Tien Giang provinces.

In addition, excessive exploitation of groundwater has causedsevere subsidence in the Mekong Delta.

According to a study by Utrecht University in theNetherlands, the Mekong Delta has subsided by an average of 18cm over a 25 yearperiod (from 1991 to 2016).

Subsidence of over 30cm in Soc Trang and Long An provinceshas occurred.

According to Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent researcher onMekong Delta ecology, an extensive system of dykes exist in the middle parts ofthe Delta such as Can Tho, Hau Giang, Vinh Long and Tien Giang provinces.

Most of the rivers in this area, including small rivers andcanals, have two roadways on both sides of the river with two dykes.  

This huge amount of water cannot be discharged to fields orponds, and, as a result, flooding in the city and urban areas occurs.

Thien said that from 2000 to 2011 the storage capacity of theLong Xuyen Quadrangle fell by 4.7 billion cu.m due to construction of a closeddyke and embankment system covering more than 1,000sq.km in the area.

Tran Hoang Tuu, Vice Chairman of the Vinh Long People’sCommittee, said that, of nearly 2,000km of dykes and embankments, about 50km ofdykes had been damaged and more than 100 landslide spots discovered in theprovince. 

He said the province would seek ways to bring water into ricefields.

“This is a very important issue, which requires neighbouringprovinces to find solutions to store water during the flood season,” he said.“The reality is that this year the floods are not that high, but dykes arebuilt everywhere to protect production. Water cannot enter the field forcultivation. This can cause flooding outside the dyke.”-VNS/VNA