For generations, Vietnamese communities have used the ample water resources and fertile soil of the Mekong Delta to feed the nation. Fuelled by the Mekong’s constant supply of rich sediment, the fisheries and paddy fields of Vietnam’s southernmost region have long been the bedrock of Vietnam’s economy. But a combination of climate change and upstream hydropower are warping the delta’s natural resources. Research by The Third Pole suggests that current resilience strategies are falling short and may exacerbate problems in the long term.
The Third Pole’s data analysis highlights that current solutions are focusing on short-term fixes. These maintain the delta’s high agricultural productivity even though the water needed in the long term is not there, and is unlikely to come back. Not addressing the root causes of water and sediment shortages may irreversibly damage the delta, known as Vietnam’s rice bowl, as the country uses up resources that cannot be replenished.
The Mekong’s waning fertility
The Third Pole’s analysis used data from the Mekong Dam Monitor, a public online monitoring platform that measures climate issues in the basin using satellite imagery, GIS analysis and remote sensing. The Mekong Dam Monitor also models the natural flow of the river – simulating what conditions would be without the impact of dams.
Comparing actual flow with simulated flow reveals that the river has lost a quarter of its expected water flow in the rainy season. Exacerbating the problem, rainfall has decreased by 10%-45% in the dry season, while the average temperature has increased.
Such a huge drop in water requires that farmers switch to less-thirsty crops. But the opposite is happening. As fertile areas shrink, production of water-intensive crops such as rice is increasing, worsening water shortages.
“The agricultural productivity of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta faces a triple threat of impacts from upstream dams, rising seas and a legacy of poor local planning,” said Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia director of the Stimson Center, a Washington DC-based think tank that jointly developed the Mekong Dam Monitor.
“These threats have robbed the delta of reliable flows of freshwater and the distribution of nutritious sediment across the delta’s floodplains during the wet season. It’s unlikely that freshwater sediment availability will ever return to normal levels in the delta,” Eyler told The Third Pole.
Water flow falls during the rainy season
According to our analysis of Mekong Dam Monitor data, since 2008 the average volume of water in the Mekong during the rainy season (between June and November) has been 2.4 billion cubic metres less per month than the simulated natural volume. This is the equivalent of nearly a million Olympic swimming pools. Along with water, sediment has been lost: around three-quarters of the material crucial for agriculture. Sediment contains the minerals and nutrients that crops need to grow.
Part of the reason the problem has been ignored is that it is difficult to measure and very few institutions attempt to. The water flow of a river is estimated by measuring the volume of water flowing through a given water gauge each second, in this case at Chiang Saen in the north of Thailand. This decreased flow in the rainy season is largely to do with reduced rainfall and partly attributed to hydropower dams on China’s section of the Mekong, which are holding back both water and sediment. But, in the dry season, Chinese dams release water to keep pace with high demand for energy, thus sending water downstream.
In recent research which is awaiting publication, Eyler and his colleagues have found that the flow of water reaching the Mekong Delta is impacted by Chinese dams on top of climate change. In their study, they looked at Stung Treng gauge in Cambodia, 400km north of the delta.
“During low flow years, upstream dams in China have increasingly reduced wet season flow between 9-11%,” Eyler said. “Dam restrictions in China can reduce the natural flood pulse of the Mekong at Stung Treng by up to 27% for certain months during years with low flow.”
Đào Minh Tuấn, a farmer who heads a cooperative in Cần Thơ in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, has long observed what scientists are now trying to measure.
“Before 2010, there was more water, and it had much more silt. Now, there is less water and less silt,” he said.
Climate change means less fresh water in the Mekong Delta
By the end of the dry season, farmers struggle to find enough fresh water and have to battle the intrusion of saltwater. “The main challenges for the farmers come from salinity and sea level rise, which are exacerbated by climate change,” said Nguyễn Văn Hùng, a researcher at the International Rice Research Institute. In addition, “More erratic weather makes it harder for them to anticipate the rain.”
The early impacts of climate change have led to scarcer rainfall in the Mekong Delta region. In the coastal province of Cà Mau, in southern Vietnam, data from the weather station shows increasingly severe dry seasons. Every year since 2015, rainfall has been below the 18-year average, with the worst drought recorded in 2018, when recorded rainfall was nearly half the average.
According to the same weather station, the average temperature at Cà Mau was 0.3 degrees Celsius higher in 2015-20 than the 18-year average. A peer-reviewed study published in 2017 found this could reduce rice production by 3%.
The prognosis is alarming because more than half of the 20 million people in the delta rely on agriculture and aquaculture for their livelihoods.
Too much rice in the basket
Across Vietnam, resilience plans have focused on exploiting scarce water resources instead of shifting agriculture away from water-intensive crops and practices. Irrigation has allowed farmers in the delta to grow rice three times a year instead of two like in the rest of the country.
“I produce about 7 to 8 tonnes of rice per hectare in the winter-spring season, 5 to 6 tonnes in the summer season, and 5 to 7 tonnes in the autumn-winter season, but this depends on the weather,” said Đào Minh Tuấn, the farmer in Cần Thơ.
The delta now accounts for more than half of Vietnam’s rice production. In 2019, Vietnam produced around 44 million tonnes of rice – enough to feed the entire population for three years. Vietnam has become the world’s second-largest rice exporter.
Rice is a thirsty crop. Around 2,500 litres of water are needed to produce one kilogram. In the wet season, the rains supply enough freshwater, but during the dry season farmers depend on the Mekong for irrigation, increasing their reliance on water pumps and canals.
Unsustainable hard engineering
The intensive construction of channels and dykes has been a mixed blessing for Vietnam, and may hasten the declining fertility of the delta region. Two hundred years ago, French and American land planners started to develop a network of channels to take advantage of the fertile delta. Vietnamese engineers continued this work, and between 2011 and 2016 the number of solid public irrigation canals grew by a factor of 15, with the number of public pump stations increasing by 40%.
The proliferation of dykes and canals for irrigation mitigates the impacts of water scarcity, at least in the short term, but also reduces the amount of sediment settling in the wet season. Dykes block the sediment and canals quicken the flow of water, preventing small particles from being deposited.
Though the irrigation system has allowed Vietnam to produce a rice surplus and also become the fourth-largest exporter of shrimp and fish, it may become increasingly hard to keep up the same level of production. In October 2021, a World Bank article expressed concern that degradation of ecosystems is leading to loss of livelihoods.
During the 2018-19 dry season, nearly 20,000 hectares of rice paddy – an area one-tenth the size of Ho Chi Minh city – were damaged by salt intrusion in coastal provinces such as Soc Trang, Kien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Ca Mau. Nearly 80,000 people in the delta did not have enough freshwater.
“If rice cultivation continues for the next 20 years with the [current] intensive farming methods, the land will become very poor,” said Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent consultant who used to work for Can Tho University and has been studying the ecology of the delta for the past 30 years.
Shrimp farming: A temporary solution to a worsening problem
One proposed solution is to make use of brackish water by farming shrimp, but that too may be a stopgap measure.
Shrimp farmers can earn 10 times more than rice farmers, prompting many to abandon rice cultivation to raise shrimp year-round. Yet shrimp farming requires high investment and a precise control of water quality, just as water scarcity is beginning to bite. In addition, poor water quality can kill shrimps.
“Shrimp farming is facing many difficulties such as polluted water, climate change and diseases,” said Nguyễn Hoài An, the head of a company in Cần Thơ that sells shrimp larvae. “Most shrimp farmers get water from the river and canals, but this water source is very polluted, so the risk of killing the shrimps with low-quality water and pathogens is very high.”
Saline intrusion, caused by reduced freshwater flows from dams as well as sea level rise, could worsen the situation. In 2019, this phenomenon ruined nearly 17,000 hectares of shrimp ponds in the coastal province of Ca Mau.
Vietnam is now looking to borrow funds to develop more infrastructure in the delta in a bid to maintain agricultural productivity, instead of finding ways to reduce water usage.
Can upstream save downstream?
In An Giang, the most upstream Vietnamese province of the Mekong Delta, a project is encouraging farmers to adopt a non-traditional rice cultivation method known as alternate wetting and drying (AWD). Phạm Huỳnh Thanh Vân, a researcher at the University of An Giang University working on the project, said: “We work with farmers to explain how much water the rice really needs.” Vân added: “If farmers from provinces upstream use less water, then other farmers downstream can have more water.”
Rather than keep paddy fields flooded all the time, the AWD method includes a non-flooded period. This reduces water use and methane emissions – a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.
“AWD can reduce water use by 20% and keep the same rice yield. People have already used this method in different areas of Vietnam and in other countries,” Vân said, adding that for the AWD method to work, all farmers in the area have to adopt it simultaneously.
In 2017, the Vietnamese government launched Resolution 120/NQ-CP, a policy to promote the sustainable development of the Mekong Delta. The measure includes the promotion of practices like AWD, as well as a reduction of rice production in favour of aquaculture and fruit trees.
“In the Mekong Delta, we grow rice three times a year, so we use a lot of water for rice. We believe that if we reduce rice production, we can save water. Rice can be replaced by fruit trees or vegetables for example,” Vân said. “We have water, but the question is how it should be stored in the wet season to be used in the dry season.”
Resolution 120 is a first step in the right direction, but experts said it will take years before farmers feel its effect.
“The captain has agreed to shift course of the massive ship,” says Thien, the consultant. “But it is too big to move. It will take 10 years to get this ship on course, and there are vested interest groups who will put up a tough fight along the way.”
The Mekong Delta has the largest migration rate in the country. As the impacts of unsustainable farming start to emerge, and yields decline in some parts of the region, about 150,000 people abandon the delta every year in search of better paying jobs in other provinces. Building long-term resilience in the delta will require a lot of creativity and cooperation, experts say.
Brian Eyler suggested considering higher-value cash crops which use less water, new vertical farming techniques that introduce temperate zone crops, and investing in industries to process and add value to agricultural products inside the delta. “People in Vietnam – from planners to academics to farmers – all need to explore and swiftly transition to approaches that address this new reality [of climate change],” he said.
Water flows and their impacts in the Mekong Delta are rarely researched and poorly understood. Reliable data on water flow, sediment volume (which local farmers are so dependent on) and saltwater intrusion is scarce. During this investigation, our analysis uncovered mistakes in the Mekong Dam Monitor model at the Vientiane water station in Laos. The monitor incorrectly showed an important loss of water flow both in the dry and wet season. Incorrect data can have far-reaching consequences if used to design resilience strategies. We reached out to the Mekong River Commission and Mekong Dam Monitor, which are working to fix the model.
This story was supported by the Mekong Data Journalism Fellowship jointly organised by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the East-West Center
Kwa vizazi vingi, jamii za Vietnam zimetumia rasilimali nyingi za maji na udongo wenye rutuba wa Delta ya Mekong kulisha taifa. Kwa sababu ya maji mengi ya Mto Mekong, uvuvi na mashamba ya mchele katika eneo la kusini kabisa la Vietnam yamekuwa msingi wa uchumi wa Vietnam kwa muda mrefu. Lakini mchanganyiko wa mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa na nishati ya maji ya juu ya mto unafanya rasilimali za asili za delta ziharibike. Utafiti uliofanywa na The Third Pole unaonyesha kuwa mikakati ya sasa ya kukabiliana na hali hiyo haifai na inaweza kuzidisha matatizo kwa muda mrefu. Uchambuzi wa data ya Pole ya Tatu inasisitiza kwamba suluhisho la sasa linazingatia suluhisho la muda mfupi. Hizi kudumisha delta ya juu ya uzalishaji wa kilimo hata ingawa maji zinahitajika katika muda mrefu si huko, na ni uwezekano mdogo wa kuja nyuma. "Kukosa kushughulikia sababu za msingi za upungufu wa maji na mchanga kunaweza kuharibu delta, inayojulikana kama ""kikombe cha mchele"" cha Vietnam, kwani nchi hutumia rasilimali ambazo haziwezi kujazwa." Uchunguzi wa The Third Pole ulitumia data kutoka kwa Mfuatiliaji wa Bwawa la Mekong, jukwaa la umma la ufuatiliaji la mtandaoni ambalo hupima masuala ya hali ya hewa katika bonde hilo kwa kutumia picha za satelaiti, uchambuzi wa GIS na utambuzi wa mbali. The Mekong Dam Monitor pia mifano ya mtiririko wa asili wa mto <unk> kuiga nini hali itakuwa bila athari ya mabwawa. Ulinganisho wa mtiririko halisi na mtiririko uliobuniwa unaonyesha kwamba mto huo umepoteza robo ya mtiririko wake wa maji unaotarajiwa katika msimu wa mvua. Kwa kuongezea, mvua imepungua kwa asilimia 10 hadi 45 katika msimu wa ukame, wakati joto la wastani limeongezeka. Kupungua kwa maji kwa kiasi hicho kunahitaji wakulima wabadili mazao yasiyo na kiu sana. Lakini kinyume chake kinatokea. Kwa kuwa maeneo yenye rutuba yanapungua, uzalishaji wa mazao yanayohitaji maji mengi kama vile mchele unaongezeka, na hivyo kuzidisha upungufu wa maji. "Uzalishaji wa kilimo wa Delta ya Mekong ya Vietnam unakabiliwa na tishio la tatu la athari kutoka kwa mabwawa ya juu, kuongezeka kwa bahari na urithi wa mipango duni ya ndani, ""alisema Brian Eiler, mkurugenzi wa Asia ya Kusini Mashariki wa Kituo cha Stimson, Washington DC-msingi think tank ambayo pamoja iliendeleza Mekong Dam Monitor." <unk>Tisho hili limeondoa mtiririko wa maji baridi ya delta na usambazaji wa matope yenye lishe katika maeneo ya mafuriko ya delta wakati wa msimu wa mvua. Ni uwezekano mdogo kwamba upatikanaji wa sediment ya maji baridi itarudi kwa viwango vya kawaida katika delta, Eyler aliiambia The Third Pole. Kwa mujibu wa uchunguzi wa utafiti wa Mekong Dam Monitor, kiasi cha maji katika Mto Mekong katika kipindi cha mvua (kati ya Juni na Novemba) ni 2.4 bilioni cubic mita chini ya kiasi cha kawaida. Hii ni sawa na karibu vidimbwi vya kuogelea vya Olimpiki milioni moja. Pamoja na maji, matope yamepotea: karibu robo tatu ya vifaa muhimu kwa kilimo. Matope yana madini na virutubisho vinavyohitajika ili mazao yakue. Sehemu ya sababu tatizo hilo limepuuzwa ni kwamba ni vigumu kupima na taasisi chache sana hujaribu kufanya hivyo. Mtiririko wa maji ya mto ni takwimu kwa kupima kiasi cha maji yanayotiririka kupitia kipimo fulani cha maji kila sekunde, katika kesi hii katika Chiang Saen kaskazini mwa Thailand. Mvua hiyo iliyopungua wakati wa msimu wa mvua ni kwa sababu ya mvua iliyopungua na kwa sehemu ni kwa sababu ya mabwawa ya umeme wa maji katika sehemu ya Mto Mekong nchini China, ambayo yanazuia maji na matope. Lakini, katika majira ya ukame, mabwawa ya China hutokeza maji ili kukabiliana na uhitaji mkubwa wa nishati, hivyo kuhamisha maji chini ya mto. Katika utafiti wa hivi karibuni ambao unangojea kuchapishwa, Eyler na wenzake wamegundua kuwa mtiririko wa maji kufikia Delta ya Mekong unaathiriwa na mabwawa ya China juu ya mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa. Utafiti huo ulifanyika katika eneo la Stung Treng, Cambodia, karibu na eneo la Delta. "Katika miaka ya mtiririko mdogo, mabwawa ya juu ya mto nchini China yamepunguza mtiririko wa msimu wa mvua kati ya 9-11%, "Eyler alisema." "Mipaka ya kuimarisha mabwawa nchini China inaweza kupunguza msukumo wa mafuriko ya Mekong katika eneo la Stung Treng kwa asilimia 27 kwa miezi kadhaa katika miaka yenye mtiririko mdogo wa maji,"" alisema Dho Minh Thuan, mkulima anayeongoza shirika la Cần Thơ katika Delta ya Mekong nchini Vietnam." "Kabla ya mwaka 2010, kulikuwa na maji mengi, na kulikuwa na matope mengi zaidi.""" Sasa, kuna maji machache na matope machache, "alisema. Mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa yanamaanisha maji safi kidogo katika Delta ya Mekong: Kufikia mwisho wa msimu wa ukame, wakulima wanashindana kupata maji safi ya kutosha na lazima wapigane na uvamizi wa maji ya chumvi. "Matatatizo makuu kwa wakulima yanatokana na chumvi na kuongezeka kwa kiwango cha bahari, ambayo ni mbaya zaidi na mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa", alisema Nguyen Van Hung, mtafiti katika Taasisi ya Kimataifa ya Utafiti wa Mchele. Kwa kuongezea, "hali ya hewa isiyo ya kawaida hufanya iwe vigumu kwao kutarajia mvua". Athari za mapema za mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa zimesababisha mvua chache katika mkoa wa Delta ya Mekong. Katika mkoa wa Cà Mau, kusini mwa Vietnam, data kutoka kwa kituo cha hali ya hewa inaonyesha misimu ya ukame mkali zaidi. Kila mwaka tangu mwaka 2015, mvua imekuwa chini ya wastani wa miaka 18, na ukame mbaya zaidi uliorekodiwa mnamo 2018, wakati mvua ilirekodiwa ilikuwa karibu nusu ya wastani. Kulingana na kituo hicho cha hali ya hewa, wastani wa joto huko Cà Mau ulikuwa na digrii 0.3 zaidi ya wastani wa miaka 18 katika mwaka wa 2015. Utafiti uliochapishwa mwaka 2017 uligundua kuwa hii inaweza kupunguza uzalishaji wa mchele kwa 3%. Utabiri huo ni wa kutisha kwa sababu zaidi ya nusu ya watu milioni 20 katika delta hutegemea kilimo na ufugaji wa samaki kwa ajili ya riziki yao. """Kuna mchele mwingi sana katika kikapu"" kote Vietnam, mipango ya kukabiliana na hali hiyo imezingatia kutumia rasilimali chache za maji badala ya kuhamisha kilimo mbali na mazao na mazoea ya maji mengi." Kwa sababu ya maji ya maji, wakulima wa eneo hilo wanaweza kulima mchele mara tatu kwa mwaka badala ya mara mbili kama ilivyo katika sehemu nyingine za nchi. "Ninatengeneza takriban tani 7 hadi 8 za mchele kwa hekta katika msimu wa majira ya baridi-mapema, tani 5 hadi 6 katika msimu wa majira ya joto, na tani 5 hadi 7 katika msimu wa vuli-majira, lakini hii inategemea hali ya hewa, "alisema Cao Minh Tuong, mkulima huko Cần Thơ." Sasa delta hiyo inazalisha zaidi ya nusu ya mchele wa Vietnam. Mwaka 2019, Vietnam ilizalisha takriban tani milioni 44 za mchele - kiasi cha kutosha kulisha idadi nzima ya watu kwa miaka mitatu. Vietnam imekuwa nchi ya pili kwa ukubwa duniani kusafirisha mchele. Mchele ni mazao yenye kiu. Inahitaji lita 2,500 za maji kutengeneza kilo moja. Katika msimu wa mvua, mvua hutoa maji safi ya kutosha, lakini wakati wa msimu wa ukame wakulima hutegemea Mto Mekong kwa ajili ya umwagiliaji, na hivyo kuongeza utegemezi wao kwa pampu za maji na mifereji. Ujenzi wa mifereji na mabwawa umekuwa baraka kwa Vietnam, na inaweza kuharakisha kupungua kwa uzazi wa mkoa wa delta. Miaka mia mbili iliyopita, wataalamu wa Ufaransa na Marekani walianza kujenga mifereji ya maji ili kutumia vizuri eneo hilo lenye rutuba. Katika miaka ya 2011 na 2016, idadi ya mifereji ya umwagiliaji wa umma iliongezeka kwa mara 15, na idadi ya vituo vya pampu vya umma iliongezeka kwa 40%. Kuongezeka kwa mabwawa na mifereji ya umwagiliaji maji hupunguza athari za upungufu wa maji, angalau kwa muda mfupi, lakini pia hupunguza kiasi cha sediment ya kukaa katika msimu wa mvua. Vituo vya kuegesha maji huzuia matope na mifereji huongeza mwendo wa maji, na hivyo kuzuia chembe ndogo-ndogo zisichukue maji. Ingawa mfumo wa umwagiliaji umeruhusu Vietnam kuzalisha mchele wa ziada na pia kuwa mtoaji wa nne kwa ukubwa wa udongo na samaki, inaweza kuwa vigumu zaidi na zaidi kudumisha kiwango hicho cha uzalishaji. Katika makala ya Oktoba 2021, Benki ya Dunia ilionyesha wasiwasi kwamba uharibifu wa mazingira unasababisha upotezaji wa njia za kuishi. Katika msimu wa ukame wa mwaka 2018, karibu hekta 20,000 za mchele - eneo la sehemu ya kumi ya ukubwa wa jiji la Ho Chi Minh - ziliharibiwa na uvamizi wa chumvi katika mikoa ya pwani kama vile Soc Trang, Kien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh na Ca Mau. Watu 80,000 katika eneo hilo la delta walikuwa hawana maji ya kutosha. "Ikiwa kilimo cha mchele kitaendelea kwa miaka 20 ijayo na mbinu za kilimo cha [sasa] ya kina, ardhi itakuwa maskini sana, ""alisema Nguyen Hu Thien, mshauri huru ambaye alikuwa akifanya kazi kwa Chuo Kikuu cha Can Tho na amekuwa akisoma ikolojia ya delta kwa miaka 30 iliyopita." Ufugaji wa udongo: Suluhisho la muda kwa tatizo linalozidi kuwa mbaya Suluhisho moja linalopendekezwa ni kutumia maji ya chumvi kwa kukuza udongo, lakini hilo pia laweza kuwa hatua ya muda. Wakulima wa udongo wanaweza kupata mapato mara kumi zaidi ya wakulima wa mchele, na hivyo wengi huacha kilimo cha mchele na kufuga udongo mwaka mzima. Hata hivyo, kilimo cha udongo kinahitaji uwekezaji mkubwa na udhibiti sahihi wa ubora wa maji, kama vile upungufu wa maji unaanza kuuma. Kwa kuongezea, maji yasiyo na ubora wa kutosha yanaweza kuwaua kamba. "Ufugaji wa udongo unakabiliwa na matatizo mengi kama vile maji machafu, mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa na magonjwa", alisema Nguyễn Hoài An, mkuu wa kampuni huko Cần Thơ inayouza mabuu ya udongo. "Walima wengi wa kamba hupata maji kutoka kwa mito na mifereji, lakini chanzo hiki cha maji ni cha uchafuzi mkubwa, kwa hivyo hatari ya kuua kamba na maji ya hali ya chini na vimelea ni kubwa sana. ""Uingiliaji wa chumvi, unaosababishwa na kupunguzwa kwa mtiririko wa maji safi kutoka kwa mabwawa na kuongezeka kwa kiwango cha bahari, inaweza kuharibu hali hiyo." Mwaka 2019, dhoruba hiyo iliharibu karibu hekta 17,000 za vidimbwi vya samaki katika jimbo la pwani la Ca Mau. Vietnam sasa inatafuta kukopa fedha ili kuendeleza miundombinu zaidi katika delta katika jitihada ya kudumisha uzalishaji wa kilimo, badala ya kutafuta njia za kupunguza matumizi ya maji. Je, mto wa juu unaweza kuokoa mto wa chini? Mkoa wa An Giang, ulio upande wa juu wa mto wa Mekong Delta, una mradi wa kuwahimiza wakulima kutumia mbinu ya kilimo cha mchele isiyo ya kawaida inayojulikana kama kubadilisha unyevu na kukausha. "Phạm Huy Thanh Vân, mtafiti wa Chuo Kikuu cha An Giang, alisema: ""Tunafanya kazi na wakulima kueleza ni kiasi gani cha maji mchele unahitaji kweli,"" Vân aliongeza: ""Ikiwa wakulima kutoka mikoa ya juu hutumia maji kidogo, basi wakulima wengine wa chini wanaweza kuwa na maji zaidi." Hii hupunguza matumizi ya maji na uzalishaji wa methane - gesi ya chafu yenye nguvu zaidi kuliko kaboni dioksidi. AWD inaweza kupunguza matumizi ya maji kwa 20% na kuweka mavuno sawa ya mchele. "Watu tayari wametumia njia hii katika maeneo tofauti ya Vietnam na katika nchi nyingine, ""Vang alisema, akiongeza kwamba kwa njia ya AWD kufanya kazi, wakulima wote katika eneo hilo wanapaswa kuichukua kwa wakati mmoja." Serikali ya Vietnam ilitoa azimio la 120 NQCP mnamo 2017 ili kuendeleza maendeleo endelevu ya Delta ya Mekong. Hatua hiyo inatia ndani kukuza mazoea kama vile AWD, na pia kupunguza uzalishaji wa mchele kwa ajili ya kilimo cha maji na miti ya matunda. Katika Delta ya Mekong, tunalima mchele mara tatu kwa mwaka, kwa hiyo tunatumia maji mengi kwa ajili ya mchele. Tunaamini kwamba ikiwa tutapunguza uzalishaji wa mchele, tunaweza kuokoa maji. Mchele unaweza kubadilishwa na miti ya matunda au mboga kwa mfano, <unk> Vân alisema. "Hata hivyo, suala ni jinsi ya kuhifadhi maji katika msimu wa mvua ili yatumikie katika msimu wa ukame.""Imeelezwa kuwa uamuzi wa 120 ni hatua ya kwanza katika mwelekeo sahihi, lakini wataalamu wanasema itachukua miaka kadhaa kabla wakulima hawajisikia athari zake." "Kapteni amekubali kubadilisha mwelekeo wa meli hiyo kubwa", asema Thien, mshauri. <unk>Lakini ni kubwa sana kusonga. "Itachukua miaka kumi kuifanya meli hii iende kwenye njia sahihi, na kuna vikundi vya maslahi vilivyojitolea ambavyo vitapigana vita vikali njiani. ""Mekong Delta ina kiwango kikubwa zaidi cha uhamiaji nchini." Kwa kuwa athari za kilimo kisicho na endelevu zinaanza kuonekana, na mazao yanapungua katika sehemu fulani za mkoa huo, watu 150,000 hivi huacha delta kila mwaka kutafuta kazi zenye kulipa vizuri katika mikoa mingine. Kuimarisha uwezo wa kutatua matatizo ya mto huo, wataalamu wanasema, itahitaji ubunifu na ushirikiano mkubwa. Brian Eiler alipendekeza kuzingatia mazao ya thamani ya juu ambayo hutumia maji kidogo, mbinu mpya za kilimo cha wima ambazo huanzisha mazao ya eneo la wastani, na kuwekeza katika viwanda vya kusindika na kuongeza thamani kwa bidhaa za kilimo ndani ya delta. "Watu nchini Vietnam - kutoka kwa wapangaji hadi wasomi hadi wakulima - wote wanahitaji kuchunguza na haraka kubadilisha mbinu zinazoshughulikia hali hii mpya [ya mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa]," alisema. Mtiririko wa maji na athari zao katika Delta ya Mekong ni nadra kuchunguzwa na haijulikani vizuri. Takwimu za kuaminika juu ya mtiririko wa maji, kiasi cha matope (ambayo wakulima wa eneo hilo hutegemea sana) na kuingiliwa kwa maji ya chumvi ni chache. Katika uchunguzi huu, uchambuzi wetu ulifunua makosa katika mfano wa Mfuatiliaji wa Bwawa la Mekong katika kituo cha maji cha Vientiane nchini Laos. Kiwambo hicho kilionyesha kimakosa upotezaji mkubwa wa mtiririko wa maji katika majira ya kiangazi na ya mvua. Takwimu zisizo sahihi zinaweza kuwa na matokeo makubwa ikiwa zitatumiwa kubuni mikakati ya uimara. Tume ya Mto Mekong na Mfuatiliaji wa Bwawa la Mekong, ambao wanafanya kazi kurekebisha mfano huo. Hadithi hii iliungwa mkono na Mekong Data Journalism Fellowship iliyoandaliwa kwa pamoja na Internews <unk> Earth Journalism Network na Kituo cha Mashariki-Magharibi