Around 600,000 local people have been in lack of domestic water and 160,000 hectares of land affected by saline intrusion which damaged more than VND 5,500 billion (nearly US$ 238 million).

Up to now, about 29,000 hectares of winter-spring paddy rice fields in the Mekong Delta have been damaged by drought and saltwater intrusion.

2016 was considered as the year with historic drought in the Mekong Delta which had happened once in a hundred year but this year’s salinity data has been higher than four years ago. 

The peninsula of Ca Mau, Minh Ha is one of the main canal routes, providing irrigation water for agricultural production of farmers in the Northern Ca Mau freshwater area, Tran Van Thoi District, Ca Mau Province which is currently dried up.

Water shortage for agricultural production greatly affected rice productivity and quality, especially signed contracts between farmers and enterprises.

As this reason, food companies have bought rice with lower price than before.  This year, farmers lost around VND 300 – 350 per kilogram of rice. At the moment, the salinity level in Ben Tre Province reaches 1‰, and freshwater maintains at 2‰-3‰.