The Mekong Delta’s climate defences are failing
In coastal provinces, Dương Văn Ni has been attempting to prove that saltwater can also be a resource, not just a threat. He has developed a project in which farmers cultivate năn tượng – a native reed that thrives in saline soil and helps restore degraded land. This takes place largely on the shrimp ponds and rice fields of farmers who have either abandoned them due to low yield, or who have switched to the reed. The farmers supply the reed as raw material to over 3,000 craftspeople across the Delta, many of them women over 60 who live in rural areas.
“I want to show that the Resolution is possible,” Ni said. Such initiatives demonstrate that collaboration among farmers, scientists, businesses and local authorities can work, he added.
If infrastructure is used, it must be reimagined. “The real change must come from institutional reforms,” said Lê Anh Tuấn. Both he and Dương Văn Ni argue for small-scale, flexible solutions that evolve with changing conditions. Instead of vast reservoirs that evaporate quickly or become salinised, Tuấn advocates for small freshwater ponds and ditches, which he says better support communities during droughts.
The fixation on costly mega-projects risks undermining the very resilience the Mekong Delta urgently needs. Phương, the rice farmer, still hasn’t paid off the debt from the 2020 drought, and her land becomes more depleted with each season. “The rice barely sprouts, it’s no longer lush. The soil’s been contaminated [with salt],” she said. Phương now works part-time at a fruit processing plant just to stay afloat. Kêu, the rambutan grower, said that if seawater keeps creeping in, the community will “have to cut down our orchards and start over – or give up entirely”.
Yarina added: “One thing I hear again and again from people here is that they can adapt to economic or environmental uncertainty – they’ve done it for generations. What’s harder to adapt to is development uncertainty. Big projects disrupt water flows, displace communities and often ignore local knowledge in the process.”
This article was originally published on Dialogue Earth under a Creative Commons licence.