Clear Vietnamese response to climate change needed

Vietnam Net Bridge: The negative impacts of climate change on Viet Nam are obvious but the country remains confused about an effective, comprehensive response strategy, experts said at a meeting held last Friday to mark the World Meteorology Day (March 18). Experts as well as provincial and city representatives said there were differences of opinion on a specific strategy to minimise the consequences of climate change.

They said that the actual, specific impacts experienced by regions and localities nationwide were yet to be assessed, and this had hindered the formulation of effective response plans at the local level. The rise in seawater level was often mentioned, but there was no evaluation of salinity intrusion into the mainland, particularly of freshwater sources like the Dong Nai River, said a representative of the Dong Nai Province's Environmental Protection Division.

…Duong Van Chi of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute said that agricultural production, which plays a crucial role in national development, especially in the delta regions, had been affected by unusual weather in recent years. Significant impacts had been seen on rice cultivation, the output of crops in general and in animal husbandry, he said.

…Nguyen Dong Hoai, head of the Ca Mau Hydrology Division, said the protective forest area (mainly cajeput forests) in Mekong Delta province had suffered serious losses of late. As many as 60 seawalls had lost their protected forest areas and the width of 300km of remaining levees had been reduced to 20-100m. He said the southernmost province in the country was facing the risk of having no protective forests left for the seawall system in the next three years.

…Le Cong Thanh, director of the Department of Hydro-Meteorology and Climate Change, the country should accord top priority over the next five years to drawing up masterplans for the Mekong and the Red river deltas, and to reinforcing the sea and river dyke systems. The plans should cover prevention of inner city flooding, modernise the disaster warning system, and regularly assess the situation of greenhouse emissions, he said….

Waterfront in My Tho, Vietnam, shot by Adam Jones Adam63, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license