{"id":60080195,"date":"2025-05-07T18:22:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?post_type=photo_story&p=60080195"},"modified":"2025-05-07T18:26:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:26:24","slug":"the-mekong-deltas-climate-defences-are-failing","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/the-mekong-deltas-climate-defences-are-failing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mekong Delta\u2019s climate defences are failing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before the 2024 dry season hit, V\u00f5 V\u0103n K\u00eau thought his rambutan orchard in Vietnam\u2019s Mekong Delta was safe \u2013 at least for another year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Severe drought has become a grim fixture in this fertile southern region. One of its most damaging effects is the inland creep of saltwater, which contaminates freshwater sources and harms crops. This time, K\u00eau believed he was protected by two newly built sluice gates \u2013 T\u00e2n Ph\u00fa and B\u1ebfn R\u1edb<\/a> \u2013 multimillion-dollar structures funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and promoted as part of B\u1ebfn Tre province\u2019s climate adaptation strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designed to block saltwater and store freshwater in the upper reaches of the Ba Lai River, farmers found gates unreliable during the peak of the March 2024 drought. B\u1ebfn R\u1edb reportedly failed due to a faulty gasket, leaking<\/a> saltwater into the very canals they were supposed to safeguard, while T\u00e2n Ph\u00fa did not work at all, with farmers living nearby telling Dialogue Earth they believed it was left open for boat traffic.

For K\u00eau, earlier droughts and saltwater intrusion in 2020<\/a> and 2022<\/a> had already left scars. At 75, this cycle was familiar to him. \u201cJust because the saltwater retreats\u2026 doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s over,\u201d he said. \u201cIt takes at least two or three years to recover from one drought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/div>
V\u00f5 V\u0103n K\u00eau, a rambutan farmer in T\u00e2n Hi\u1ec7p commune, B\u1ebfn Tre province, stands at the well connecting his farm with a nearby canal. He was left with no choice but to pump water from the canal, which was salty due to defects preventing a sluice gate from keeping seawater out of the canal, to keep his rambutan orchard alive during the peak of the March 2024 drought (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Young shoots die, fruit disappears the following season, and farmers pour money into fertiliser, pesticides, labour and canal maintenance \u2013 only to see meagre returns from their harvests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd just when the rambutan finally bounces back, another drought hits,\u201d K\u00eau said. In both 2020 and 2022, he lost half his crops, while costs doubled from having to buy farming supplies to start over. Many neighbours, buried in debt after 2020, pivoted to higher-value durians, only to watch them wither in 2024 when the new sluice gates failed to keep the saltwater out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the Mekong Delta, costly infrastructure projects are being rolled out to defend against drought and saltwater intrusion. Yet while Vietnam\u2019s Resolution 120<\/a>, implemented in 2017, promised<\/a> a new climate adaptation strategy \u2013 one rooted in \u201cliving with water\u201d through nature-based solutions and flexible management \u2013 the reality on the ground tells a different story. In practice, projects like sluice gates, dams and large reservoirs, often backed by international loans, are reinforcing a decades-old model of hard engineering which Resolution 120 sought to leave behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like riding on a tiger\u2019s back \u2013 once you start, you can’t get off<\/blockquote>L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n, scientific advisor at the Research Institute for Climate Change, on how hard infrastructure locks communities into debt<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Experts warn that labelling such projects as \u201cclimate adaptation\u201d \u2013 as the funders themselves often do \u2013 is misleading. \u201cWhat these infrastructures do is not \u2018living with nature\u2019 \u2013 they\u2019re really just moving the problem around,\u201d said Lizzie Yarina<\/a>, a Northeastern University professor specialising in climate adaptation and Mekong Delta planning. \u201cYou keep either salinity or flood out of one place, it goes somewhere else. This means the only way to keep \u2018solving\u2019 it is to build more and more infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n<\/a>, scientific advisor for the Research Institute for Climate Change at Can Tho University, said the sluice gate system that includes T\u00e2n Ph\u00fa and B\u1ebfn R\u1edb is actually pushing<\/a> salinity into areas like K\u00eau\u2019s fruit-growing neighbourhood, historically unfamiliar with saltwater. He likens the current approach to squeezing a leaky hose: block one spot and pressure builds elsewhere\u00a0\u2013 usually further inland. \u201cThey claim to respond to climate change, but it\u2019s the wrong kind of response,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse, poorly designed infrastructure risks locking communities into debt and environmental degradation for decades. \u201cIt\u2019s like riding on a tiger\u2019s back \u2013 once you start, you can’t get off,\u201d L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n added. The more tightly one tries to control water in the Delta, the more fragile and costly the system becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier transformations: \u2018taming\u2019 the water <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This reliance on hard infrastructure is nothing new and is what originally helped transform the Mekong Delta into one of the world\u2019s most productive<\/a> agricultural regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/div>
A canal supplying water to sugarcane fields and bell fruit orchards in An Th\u1ea1nh 2 commune, S\u00f3c Tr\u0103ng province. The construction of dams, dikes and sluice gates allowed for fruit cultivation in areas naturally prone to flooding and salinity. But recent failures to prevent saltwater intrusion have raised questions about the quality and effectiveness of these hard engineering solutions (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the past 150 years, human intervention drastically reshaped the landscape. During French colonisation, canals were carved and floodplains drained to convert swamps into rice fields for export. After the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese government followed suit<\/a> with more dikes, sea walls and sluice gates, enabling year-round rice cultivation across nearly every corner of the Delta. The ability to open, close and seal off<\/a> parts of the Delta from the sea and floods also allowed fruit trees like durian, rambutan and longan to thrive in areas naturally prone to flooding and salinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1990s and 2000s, a new \u201cfreshening coastal zones<\/a>\u201d policy aimed to push freshwater into salt-dominated provinces using irrigation infrastructure, effectively turning the area into a three-rice-crop-a-year farming region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most ambitious undertakings under this policy was the Ba Lai Irrigation Project<\/a>, launched in 2000 in B\u1ebfn Tre province. Using a network of dams, dikes and sluice gates, the project aimed to trap and store freshwater behind a river-mouth dam, shielding half the low-lying province from saltwater intrusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"an<\/div>
The sluice gate of the Ba Lai Irrigation Project in Th\u1ea1nh Tr\u1ecb commune. The project aims to store freshwater, shielding half of B\u1ebfn Tre province from water intrusion (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"a<\/div>
L\u00ea Th\u1ecb Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng, a farmer, gazes out at her third-season rice field in T\u00e2n Xu\u00e2n commune, B\u1ebfn Tre province, which failed to flower due to saltwater intrusion and drought (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For a time, it worked. Farmer families like L\u00ea Th\u1ecb Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng\u2019s started growing rice year-round. The increased income allowed her to raise cows \u2013 her \u201csavings\u201d \u2013 and build a new brick house beside the field<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut since 2020, I haven\u2019t dared to grow the third crop in the dry season,\u201d she said. The 2019-2020 dry season saw severe drought and deep seawater intrusion<\/a> wipe out her rice harvest and kill all nine of her cows. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t survive drinking salt water,\u201d she said. \u201cWe struggled to find water for [even] ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projects like Ba Lai struggled to keep up. B\u1ebfn Tre became the epicentre of that season\u2019s historic drought<\/a>, in which increased salinity affected<\/a> 10 of the Delta\u2019s 13 provinces. This was just the second of what has become a relentless cycle of droughts and salinisation. In 2016, a severe drought, worsened by El Ni\u00f1o, pushed saltwater 90 kilometres<\/a> inland. The coast was hit again in 2022<\/a>, and then again in 2024<\/a>, reinforcing fears that extreme droughts and salinisation are the new normal. \u201cWhile the Mekong Delta is no stranger to saline intrusion, the intensity and frequency is unprecedented,\u201d said L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Aerial<\/div>
Lemongrass was grown in this field in Phu Thanh commune for its high tolerance<\/a> to salinity, but it lays barren, having failed to survive drought and excess saline levels. A relentless cycle of historic droughts has hit the Mekong Delta in the last decade, with farmers fearing it could be the new normal (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
Third-crop rice flowers affected by drought and salinity in T\u00e2n Xu\u00e2n commune, B\u1ebfn Tre Province. Current climate trajectories could lead to more than 45% of the Delta being submerged and the displacement of millions (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

These cascading disasters signal a breaking point. Upstream dams, particularly in China and Laos, have cut off<\/a> much of the Mekong\u2019s natural flow and sediment, weakening<\/a> its natural freshwater defences against rising seas. Rising temperatures<\/a> are also disrupting rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists warn that if current trends in sea level rise continue, more than 45%<\/a> of the Delta could be submerged within decades, displacing millions and jeopardising Vietnam\u2019s food security. Saline intrusion alone has cost<\/a> Mekong Delta farmers an estimated USD 2.8 billion over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental changes could cost the Delta billions if adaptation efforts fall short. A 2021 study<\/a> estimates GDP losses of 4.5% at 1.5C global warming, rising to up to 10.8% under a 3C scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this highlights a harsh new reality: as freshwater dwindles, the hard engineering legacy that once powered the Mekong Delta\u2019s agricultural boom is now undermining its resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to nature? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Recognising the Mekong Delta\u2019s importance, the Vietnamese government made it a national priority<\/a> with the launch of Resolution 120<\/a> in 2017. It signalled a shift away from controlling water through infrastructure, to a \u201cthuan thien<\/em>\u201d (nature-based) approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/div>
D\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u0103n Ni inspects n\u0103n t\u01b0\u1ee3ng <\/em>growing in saltwater on the fields of a farmer participating in his livelihoods project, located on a former rice plantation. The native reed thrives in saline soil and helps restore degraded land (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was groundbreaking, marking the end of the freshwater-centric development era,\u201d said D\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u0103n Ni, an agriculture and biodiversity expert focused on the Mekong Delta. Under the new vision, saltwater, floodwater and brackish water were no longer seen as threats to be minimised, but as resources to be managed. Rice, once the Delta\u2019s agricultural backbone, was downgraded to third in priority<\/a>, after aquaculture and fruit production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mekong Delta Regional Plan for 2021-2030<\/a>, published in 2022, reaffirmed this new direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spiralling (back) into hard infrastructure?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yet since the regional plan\u2019s publication, experts worry the Delta has been heading in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the national agricultural budget still goes to large-scale water-control projects such as sea dikes and sluice gates, noted L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n. About 80% of government agricultural investment goes to irrigation and flood control, according to a 2022 Asian Development Bank report<\/a>. Provinces, including B\u1ebfn Tre<\/a>, continue to push for more funding to expand this infrastructure. \u201cFunds for crop restructuring and livelihood diversification remain small,\u201d L\u00ea added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even internationally funded projects reflect this trend. The eight-sluice-gate irrigation system <\/a>backed by JICA \u2013 which T\u00e2n Ph\u00fa and B\u1ebfn R\u1edb are part of \u2013 has faced delays<\/a> and suspensions<\/a> due to cost overruns and currency fluctuations, leaving the project incomplete. The two sluice gates were completed in 2024 after seven years of construction delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial<\/div>
The T\u00e2n Ph\u00fa sluice gate, a multi-million-dollar structure that is part of B\u1ebfn Tre province\u2019s climate adaptation strategy. Provinces of the Mekong Delta region continue to push for more funding to expand irrigation and flood control infrastructure, even though their efficacy has been questioned by farmers and experts (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, projects labelled as \u201clivelihood\u201d or \u201cnature-based\u201d often fall back into the old infrastructure trap. \u201cMy research reveals that […] emergent plans and projects \u2013 even those labelled nature-based \u2013 risk reproducing infrastructural side effects,\u201d said Lizzie Yarina, whose work examined climate adaptation and infrastructure impacts in the Delta from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cited the World Bank\u2019s Mekong Delta Integrated Climate Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods project<\/a> as an example. Despite its title, most of the USD 387 million budget was funnelled into dikes, sluices and roads, including parts of the Ba Lai system. The so-called \u201clivelihood\u201d elements often amounted to little more than fertiliser handouts, seedlings, or occasional training for farmers already practicing the methods being promoted, Yarina noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

One reason for the continued push toward infrastructure, Yarina suggested, is visibility. \u201cEverybody can see it. They can document it: \u2018We built it\u2019.\u201d By contrast, investments in \u201csoft\u201d adaptation, like farmer training, crop diversification, or strengthening local governance, are much harder to measure and justify to funders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequences of this infrastructure bias are mounting. \u201cWhat we\u2019ll leave behind for future generations is massive debt,\u201d L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n said. Maintenance costs pile up<\/a>, while the benefits \u2013 such as rice grown for export at low prices<\/a> \u2013 don\u2019t offset the real cost of the loans. \u201cIt\u2019s like taking out a loan to buy a Mercedes, only to use it as a taxi,\u201d he said. The ecological toll<\/a> of past infrastructure projects \u2013 the loss of wildlife and degraded ecosystems \u2013 has also never been properly assessed, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Resolution 120 to fulfil its stated goals, experts say the focus must shift from engineering to livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/div>
A weaver working with n\u0103n t\u01b0\u1ee3ng<\/em> reed at H\u1ed3ng Thu\u1ef7 Livelihood Cooperative in H\u00f2a T\u00fa 1 Commune, Soc Trang province. D\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u0103n Ni\u2019s project sees farmers cultivating the reed and supplying the raw material to over 3,000 craftspeople across rural areas of the Delta, mostly women over 60, who form cooperatives to produce bags, baskets and other objects (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In coastal provinces, D\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u0103n Ni has been attempting to prove that saltwater can also be a resource, not just a threat. He has developed a project in which farmers cultivate n\u0103n t\u01b0\u1ee3ng<\/em><\/a> \u2013<\/em> a native reed that thrives in saline soil and helps restore degraded land. This takes place largely on the shrimp ponds and rice fields of farmers who have either abandoned them due to low yield, or who have switched to the reed. The farmers supply the reed as raw material to over 3,000 craftspeople across the Delta, many of them women over 60 who live in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to show that the Resolution is possible,\u201d Ni said. Such initiatives demonstrate that collaboration among farmers, scientists, businesses and local authorities can work, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If infrastructure is used, it must be reimagined. \u201cThe real change must come from institutional reforms,\u201d said L\u00ea Anh Tu\u1ea5n. Both he and D\u01b0\u01a1ng V\u0103n Ni argue for small-scale, flexible solutions that evolve with changing conditions. Instead of vast reservoirs that evaporate quickly or become salinised<\/a>, Tu\u1ea5n advocates for small freshwater ponds and ditches, which he says better support communities during droughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
This freshwater reservoir has a capacity of nearly one million cubic meters and supplies domestic and agricultural water to about 200,000 people in Ba Tri District, B\u1ebfn Tre province. Experts say such reservoirs, although vast, evaporate quickly and become salinised (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
A farmer checks on his family\u2019s newly built 6-cubic-metre water tank in H\u00f2a An Hamlet, B\u1ebfn Tre province. Experts note that small freshwater ponds are better than large reservoirs at supporting communities during droughts (Image: Th\u00e0nh Nguy\u1ec5n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The fixation on costly mega-projects risks undermining the very resilience the Mekong Delta urgently needs. Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng, the rice farmer, still hasn\u2019t paid off the debt from the 2020 drought, and her land becomes more depleted with each season. \u201cThe rice barely sprouts, it\u2019s no longer lush. The soil\u2019s been contaminated [with salt],\u201d she said. Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng now works part-time at a fruit processing plant just to stay afloat. K\u00eau, the rambutan grower, said that if seawater keeps creeping in, the community will \u201chave to cut down our orchards and start over \u2013 or give up entirely\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yarina added: \u201cOne thing I hear again and again from people here is that they can adapt to economic or environmental uncertainty \u2013 they\u2019ve done it for generations. What\u2019s harder to adapt to is development uncertainty. Big projects disrupt water flows, displace communities and often ignore local knowledge in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Infrastructure projects to keep out seawater in southern Vietnam have been plagued by failures. Experts say the country must shift from hard fixes to nature-based solutions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":60080344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[761],"tags":[17827,543,556,20000155],"country":[20028207],"class_list":["post-60080195","photo_story","type-photo_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-climate-adaptation","tag-extreme-weather","tag-infrastructure","tag-mekong","country-vietnam"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mekong Delta\u2019s climate defences are failing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Infrastructure projects to keep out seawater have been plagued by failures. 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