Climate change may displace millions in Mekong Delta: report

A report jointly written by experts from the United Nations, CARE International, and the Earth Institute of Columbia University estimates more than 14 million residents in the Cuu Long River Delta could lose their rice fields if sea levels were to rise by two meters.

In Vietnam, the Cuu Long, as the Mekong River is known, flows through the southwestern region before it joins the sea.
The impact of flooding is a major contributing factor to migration and displacement in the delta, according to the report.

Actually locals in the Mekong Delta have few choices to sustain their rural livelihoods in the face of flooding. And together with mounting debt following disasters and higher consumer prices, they have to make the decision to migrate.

The report predicts that in the future, one out of every 10 residents of the Mekong Delta may face displacement because of rising sea levels.

Many of the delta residents have already undertaken seasonal migration to urban centers during the flooding season, it says.

The delta, which is home to 22 percent of the country’s population, produces half the nation’s rice output, 60 percent of seafood, 80 percent of fruit crops and accounts for 90 percent of total national rice exports, the report notes.

Thanh Nien Daily