The Mekong Delta lacks water or does not know how to conserve water?

According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Hieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Water Resources Management (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), in the 1980–2023 period, every year, the total flow of the Mekong River transfers over 443 billion m³ of water into the Mekong Delta, and the region's endogenous water is about 32 billion m³. Thus, surface water resources for the region depend on the water source upstream of the Mekong River.

Therefore, mining activities upstream of the Mekong River basin have been at direct risk of reducing water sources flowing into Vietnam.

As for groundwater resources, the potential reserve throughout the basin reaches approximately 72 million m³/day. Of which, the exploitable groundwater reserve is about 7.8 million m³/day.

Along with the problems of flow reduction, saltwater intrusion, and the risk of cross-border pollution, water resources in the Mekong Delta are under pressure from internal economic development activities such as domestic wastewater, aquaculture and seafood processing, livestock farming, crop production, industrial production, etc. This poses a big challenge in terms of water sources for the Mekong Delta, especially in the current context of severe drought and saltwater intrusion.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Huy, a research expert on extreme climate and natural disasters, has conducted thorough research on rainfall. He assessed that a large amount of rainfall that can be used is between 1,600 and possibly up to 2,400mm.

However, the question raised by Mr. Huy is why this rainfall has not been included in plans to take advantage of it.

"There is water in the rivers and water in the sky, so why is there a lack of water? The problem here is not knowing how to conserve water. Currently, people keep water mainly in canals. Meanwhile, wastewater, rainwater, and river water, which are unusable water sources due to pollution and salinity, also flow into canals," Mr. Huy analyzed.

During the actual survey in coastal areas or downstream areas, where people have difficulty on accessing water sources, Mr. Huy clearly realized that people had to exploit groundwater.

Meanwhile, some proposed solutions stipulate that people are not allowed to exploit groundwater. According to Mr. Huy, this sanction is not appropriate and cannot be implemented. Therefore, to solve the water source problem for the Mekong Delta region, this expert said that building reservoirs to retain water during the dry season needs to be calculated.

For further analysis, Mr. Huy said that the rainy season ends in November 2023 and lasts until the end of April 2024. Thus, the water shortage will last several months, and reservoirs must be strictly protected for use during this period. Besides, localities and specialized agencies need to think about classifying water sources for living and production.

In Ca Mau province, nearly 100% of domestic water now comes from surface water resources. Having experienced drought and saltwater intrusion sessions, this locality clearly realizes that changing people's awareness of water use is very important.

According to Mr. Le Van Su, Vice Chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee, the locality has implemented many immediate and long-term solutions to encourage people to use water economically and know how to conserve water resources.

“In fact, the current price of domestic water used by rural people is limited to VND 5,000–7,000/m³. When people are forced to pay VND 15,000/m³ of water, then will they think about saving or storing rainwater for use," said Mr. Su.

Currently, Ca Mau province is focusing on water supply for about 3,300 households in difficult areas. At the same time, the province is implementing a project to improve on-spot water storage capacity by encouraging people to store water on household and community scales. This both contributes to changing awareness and helps to improve water storage capacity for local people.