Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Mekong Delta is hometo nearly 18 million Vietnamese people, and is the most important rice fieldand fishing region of the country.

Vietnam cannot afford to lose it as an agriculturalpowerhouse, but may be unable to stop just that happening.

A recent study conducted by the Agence Francaise deDeveloppement (French Development Agency – AFD) and the European Union (EU)found that the Mekong River’s sediments arriving down the Cuu Long Delta fellfrom 65 to 75 percent compared to the total in the 1990s, and by half over thelast few years.

This sediment shortage was mostly caused by human activitiesin the river’s upstream, with hydropower plants sprouting up despite theprotests of downstream countries like Cambodia and Vietnam. Vietnam’s ownrampant sand mining in the delta’s rivers only exacerbated the situation.  

The study gave a bleak forecast: the Mekong Delta is verylikely to receive between 10 and 20 percent of the nutrient-rich sedimentcompared to what it used to get in the last century once all the hydropowerplant projects on the Mekong River are finished.

The study also estimated losses of about 15.8 trillion VND (702million USD) a year to Vietnam’s economy due to a severe decline in agricultureand fisheries. The revenue of companies in the region could be cut by up to 50percent, the study suggested.

Hydropower dams in the upstream of the Mekong River not onlytrapped sediment but also blocked fish from freely migrating downstream to theMekong Delta.

It was found that existing dams have already cost about 50percent of fish stocks in Vietnam and Cambodia, while as many as 10 percent offish species would disappear from the rivers in the two countries.

The huge loss of sediments was wrecking havoc on river banksand coastal lines in the south of Vietnam, with erosion and subsidence occurringat faster rates than ever before.

“Subsidence in the Cuu Long Delta was widespread andparticularly worse in the lowland,” said Dr Van Pham Dang Tri from Can ThoUniversity, located in the city of the same name in the Mekong Delta.

Agriculture and Rural Development deputy minister Hoang VanThang said that the sediment loss stopped the build-up and expanding process ofthe delta.

“Due to that, we now witness the opposite process – seaencroachment in which more and more land has been lost. It is happening toofast,” he said.

He believed the unsustainable development in the Mekongupstream played a big role in the mass subsidence taking place in the Cuu Longdelta.

“But the unsustainable development in the delta itself, forexample the rampant sand mining or the overexploitation of underwater, was alsovery alarming,” Thang added.-VNA