In Mekong Delta, few know or worry about rising seas

Bangkok Post: It's not hard to imagine the Mekong Delta under water. The fertile rice fields are flat as a table top - except for the odd limestone mountain - and stretch as far as the eye can see. Much of the region lies barely a meter above sea level. According to some projections, nearly half of the Delta's farmland could be destroyed from rising sea levels due to global warming. Yet that is news to those who live here. "Oh my god," said a farmer and small-scale fisherman when told of future rising seas. "I won't be alive by then." Those who might be around also couldn't imagine such an influx. "We'll stay in our house," said a schoolboy standing on a dusty, wind-whipped levee. "Or we'll run to the mountain."

While many of the planet's well-off calculate their "food miles" and "carbon foot-prints," many of the world's poor have never heard of climate change or global warming. The irony is that the poor are likely to be hit hardest by a warming world. This was one of the key findings by Vietnamese journalists on a recent environmental workshop in Kien Giang province, the heart of Vietnam's rice bowl, more than 250km southwest of Ho Chi Minh City and along the Gulf of Thailand.

The Delta is home to millions of Vietnamese who help make Vietnam the world's second-largest exporter of rice, after Thailand. As sea levels rise, many are expected to lose their homes and livelihoods while the nation stands to lose valuable crop land. Higher sea levels are likely to lead to more damaging storm surges while saltwater intrusion could affect water supplies and soil quality. In addition, rising temperatures could reduce crop yields, lead to more disease, and create more flooding and drought.

Even if they do not realise it, residents of the Mekong Delta have been battling climate change. In one district, they've raised the height of a 49km dyke from 1.2 metres to 1.5 metres to keep out the ocean. A World Bank study projects that Vietnam, with more than 3,000km of coastline, will be one of the five most affected countries in the world. Under the most extreme scenarios, it warns that the entire southern tip of Vietnam, an area of roughly 40,000sqkm, could be inundated....

Photo of the Mekong Delta from space, NASA, Wikimedia Commons