Impacts in Vietnam -- worse hazards, but spotty awareness

Thanh Nien (Vietnam): Even as authorities try to come to grips with the challenges posed by climate change, local residents in coastal and low-lying areas are unaware of the magnitude of the threat facing them. Although there are no official statistics for the damage caused, the rise in sea level has already eroded or submerged housing and arable land over the past several years and the damage is forecast to increase every year.

International agencies have warned of a one-meter rise in sea level by 2100 as a consequence of global warming. Vietnam is considered one of the top countries most at risk from its impacts. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in January warned that a one-meter rise in sea level could flood up to 12 percent of arable land and affect nearly 10 percent of the population, now estimated at about 86 million people. The flooded area would equal 4.4 percent of the country’s total land mass of 331,690 square kilometers.

However, in a random survey of residents in the coastal province of Bac Lieu in the Mekong Delta, Thanh Nien found they were still unaware of the damage caused by climate change.

….Authorities in Ca Mau Province are saying a 10 centimeter rise in sea levels in recent years has already caused significant damage. The province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has reported a high tide peak of up to 30 centimeters higher than in previous years. The rise in sea level has inundated 16,300 hectares of aquaculture ponds in several districts since early this year, with losses estimated at about VND3 billion (US$172,000).

…The Mekong Delta, the country’s largest area of rice paddies and fishery farms, is forecast to suffer the most, with up to 90 percent of land set to go under with a one-meter increase in sea level. The South Western Environment Protection Agency has reported the area of rice fields had reduced to 3.77 million hectares in 2006 from 3.94 million hectares in 2000.

Last November's flooding in Hanoi, shot by hunganh3, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0