Vietnam faces severe water shortage

UPI: Vietnam, hit by drought, faces a severe nationwide water shortage that threatens agriculture and tap water quality, the government said. The department of electricity and the agriculture ministry said three of the biggest reservoirs in the north, which supply water needed to irrigate crops, were nearly empty, even though less of their water was used than in previous years, the Vietnam News reported Wednesday.

The report said in the central region of the country, water levels were alarmingly low in major rivers. Stretches of the Tra Khuc and Ve rivers in Quang Ngai Province were completely dry, it said. In Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta region, the drought has led to intrusion of salt water which has damaged crops and added salinity to tap water, the report said….

From February 11, a parched rice field in Can Tho, shot by Dragfyre, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license