Ben Tre (VNA) – The Mekong Deltaprovince of Ben Tre has prioritised measures to adapt to climate change, alocal senior official has said.
At a working session with a delegation of ConsulsGeneral in Ho Chi Minh City in the province on December 6, Vice Secretary ofthe provincial Party Committee Phan Van Mai said raising public awareness aboutclimate change adaptation is the top priority.
Agricultural production has been restructured, byreducing rice crops from three to two a year, together with developingaquaculture in saltwater-intruded rice growing areas, Mai said.
The province also looks to promote hi-techagriculture production for sustainable development, he added.
Simon Van de Burg, Consul General of the Netherlands,underscored the joint efforts made by Vietnamese and Dutch experts to design aplan for the region to adapt to climate change with assistance frominternational partners.
The World Bank has recently agreed on a loan ofnearly 400 million USD to develop sustainable livelihood and adapt to climatechange in the region.
Under the project, local farmers will receiveassistance to develop their fish farming in the context of fresh watershortages and saltwater intrusion.
Ian Gibbons, Consul General of the UK, said theCommonwealth Fund has funded numerous projects on climate change in severallocalities, suggesting that Ben Tre should submit request for the use of theresource.
Mai expressed his wish that the fund will providesupport for the province to carry out projects on fresh water to help addressthe lack of underground water resources in the province.
Meanwhile, Karen Lanyon, Consul General ofAustralia, said the country is willing to help train local communities onclimate change-related issues.
The Mekong Delta region suffered a historicalprolonged drought in this year’s dry season, which resulted in deep-in-landsaltwater intrusion, severely affecting local agricultural production and dailylife activities.
Ben Tre was among the most severely affected bythe drought, with a loss estimated at nearly 2 trillion VND (88 million USD).-VNA
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development teamed up with the World Bank (WB) to start a project on climate change adaptation in the Mekong Delta worth more than 8.5 trillion VND (384.9 million USD).
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Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) 
