Mekong delta, Vietnam’s rice bowl, is sinking

The Mekong delta in Vietnam is a world in itself, where water and earth intertwine in a primeval dance, creating a region of incredible fecundity and profound beauty, a testament not only to nature’s bounty but also its relentlessness. Yet, beneath this surface of life and abundance, the Mekong delta is on the front lines of a deadly battle against climate change and environmental degradation.

A paper published in Sustainability ¹ in 2020 pointed out that rising sea levels and erratic rainfall are causing more frequent and intense floods, even in urban areas. And a study in Agricultural Water Management² in 2020 showed that salt-water intrusion had gone deep into the inland paddy fields as a consequence of rising sea levels, while prolonged droughts were turning fertile fields into barren wastelands.