The southernmost province of Ca Mau is mobilising capital from various sources, including the Climate Change Programme and official development assistance (ODA) loans, for the urgent construction of sea embankments on its western coast.
Nguyen Long Hoai, chief of the office of the provincial steering committee for disaster prevention, search and rescue, said about 5.5 kilometres of the province’s western coastline have been eroded seriously.
Those include 3.3 kilometres from Bac Mai Huong in U Minh district to Tieu Dua in neighbouring Kien Giang province, 1.7 kilometres from Da Bac to Kinh Moi in Tran Van Thoi district and 800 metres in on the route of T29 Khanh Hoi, U Minh district.
With funding sourced from the State budget, the province urgently embarked on a project to construct 14 kilometres of underground embankments on the western coast. However, just almost 12 kilometres of the embankments were completed and the project was halted due to the shortage of capital.
Vice Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development To Quoc Nam said that construction of one kilometre of underground embankment costs more than 20 billion VND (881,800 USD).
The province has a 254 kilometre coastline, including 100 kilometres facing the eastern sea and 154 kilometres facing the western sea. A dyke along the western sea shore was constructed in the 1990s while the eastern sea dyke has yet to be built.
The province’s coastal areas are home to 260,000 households and 130,000 hectares of farming land.
Local authorities said that the province is suffering from serious erosion and saline intrusion with seawater affecting cultivation land. Meanwhile, the destruction of protective coastal forests and the polluting of the environment have created unsafe living conditions for the locals.
VNA
