The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta
is implementing measures to deal with the coming rainy season to protect lives
and property of local residents.

Houses for residents relocated from flood-prone areas are being built in the southern province of Vinh Long’s Binh Minh District. (Photo: VNS)

At residential
areas in Nui Sap Town and Vong The Commune in An Giang Province’s Thoai Son
District, the central flood-prone area in Long Xuyen Quadrilateral region,
residents are busy moving into their new floodproof houses, Sai Gon Giai Phong
(Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper reported.

Duong Hoa Nha,
head of the Thoai Son District Construction Project Management Board, said: “The
task of relocating households in flood-prone and landslide-prone areas have been
implemented drastically.”

The district has
relocated more than 2,200 households into the 16 flood-proof residential
clusters, which were built under the first phase of the 2001-13 national
programme of building flood-proof residential clusters in the Delta.

Under the
programme’s first phase, Long An, Tien Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, An Giang,
Kien Giang and Hau Giang provinces and Can Tho City have relocated more than
130,000 households in low-lying areas into flood-proof residential clusters.

An Giang and Dong
Thap, the delta’s two upstream flooding provinces, have relocated all households
in dangerous areas into flood-proof residential clusters.

Le Minh Chau,
director of Dong Thap Province’s Department of Construction, said: “Under the
programme’s first phase, Dong Thap has moved more than 37,000 households into
204 flood-proof residential clusters.”

“We have boosted
the process of clearing land to build infrastructure for the 43 flood-proof
residential clusters to provide safe houses for 12,675 households under the
programme’s second phase,” Chau said.

However, the
process of building flood-proof residential clusters under the second phase has
slowed because of capital shortage, he said.

The delta’s flood
and storm prevention and control steering committees at all levels are also
carrying out measures to ensure safety for residents, including setting up
rescue teams.

An Giang and Dong
Thap, for instance, have set up more than 500 rescue teams with 3,000 rescuers.

The two provinces
have also spent hundreds of billion of dong to organise swimming courses and
boats to pick up students and offer childcare places in the flooding season.

Doan Minh Triet,
deputy chairman of the Thoai Son District People’s Committee, said the district
had completed its dyke systems for flood control. Other localities in An Giang
are also consolidating old dykes and building new ones, upgrading sluice gates
and pumping stations, dredging canals and preparing facilities and fuels to pump
water to protect the province’s 125,000ha of the third rice crop.

Vuong Nghia Quoc,
director of Dong Thap Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development, said Dong Thap had also carried out measures to protect 99,300ha of
the third rice crop and tens of thousands of hectares under fruit and aquatic
cultivation in its closed dyke systems.

Mixed
blessing

In recent years,
besides dealing with flooding caused by the rising water from the upper stream
of Tien and Hau rivers, two main tributaries of Mekong River, the delta has also
exploited the advantages of flooding to develop production and do business.

Besides catching
snails, crabs and fish brought from the flooding, tens of thousands of
households in An Giang have been taught models of growing lotus, water
chestnuts, sesban and other vegetables and aquatic cultivation during the
flooding season, which often begins in September every year and lasts about
three to four months.

In this year’s
flooding season, An Giang will continue developing its project of exploiting
natural resources, brought from floods, with 30 production models in the plant
cultivation aquaculture, and services sectors.

In 2000-02,
flooding caused damage of VND300-400 billion (US$14.2-19 million) each year in
An Giang.

But since 2002, An
Giang farmers have taken advantage of flooding for production and have now
earned VND4.5 trillion ($214 million) a year and provided jobs for 500,000
labourers.

Dong Thap
Province’s farmers also earn about VND500 billion to VND1 trillion ($23.8-47.6
million) in each flooding season.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News