Mitigating the Impact of Coastal Climate Change

(Baonghean) - The phrase climate change seems quite strange, but when talking about extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves, droughts that are getting longer and more severe, floods with stronger intensity... people immediately understand. That is all we received after meetings with people in some coastal communes of Quynh Luu, Dien Chau or Nghi Loc.

Identifying climate change

Dien Kim commune, Dien Chau district is identified as one of the areas heavily affected by climate change. In the past few years, in the commune alone, dozens of hectares of alluvial land outside the dike were eroded every time there were storms and high tides, and seawater overflowed. The land had to be abandoned, unable to produce. Not only was the production land affected, but during storms, in some residential areas in Dien Kim, seawater flowed back through small culverts into the village, causing local salinity, reducing the productivity of crops and some fruit trees in people's gardens... In some other communes such as Dien Ngoc, Dien Ky, Dien Van, Dien Bich, another negative situation appeared, due to heavy rain, some salt production areas were sweetened, resulting in poor productivity. Nearly 60 hectares of salt land in Dien Chau district had to be abandoned, of which Hai Thuong hamlet, Dien Ngoc commune had about 15-16 hectares, Do Ky village, Dien Ky commune had nearly 20 hectares, Dien Van commune had 35 hectares...

Cage fish farming in Nghi Quang commune - Nghi Loc.

According to surveys and calculations by professional agencies, Nghi Quang and Nghi Loc communes are areas that are greatly affected by climate change. Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, Tran Hai Duong, shared: “The impact of climate change on the commune is the lack of irrigation water and drought. Whenever the upstream water is scarce and the weather is hot, the commune's rice fields are at risk of saltwater intrusion. In recent years, there have been times when saltwater has risen to Nghi Quang bara. Because it is at the end of the irrigation water source of the Southern irrigation system, not only Nghi Quang but also some neighboring communes such as Nghi Tien, Nghi Thiet and Nghi Van, whenever the weather is erratic (specifically, this year there is no Tieu Man rain), the upcoming summer-autumn crop will certainly be significantly affected in terms of area due to lack of water.

Focus on preventing and minimizing the impact of climate change

To limit and minimize the harmful effects and proactively respond to climate change, in recent years, coastal localities have made efforts to integrate investment programs and projects to upgrade sea dykes, river dykes and irrigation works. In particular, Dien Chau district, with the attention of the State, since 2006, the district has invested about 340 billion VND to upgrade nearly 23 km of river dykes and nearly 25 km of sea dykes. Along with the investment in upgrading almost completely river dykes, sea dykes, irrigation sluices to regulate water to retain fresh water and prevent salinity such as Dien Thanh, Dien Thuy sluices or Dien Hai, Dien Hung sluices have been repaired and upgraded.

In Nghi Loc district, in addition to Nghi Quang sluice, Thuong Xa sluice, Khe Lay dam... which have been upgraded, the State has invested tens of billions of VND to build a dike system to prevent saltwater intrusion on the left and right sides of the Cam River, prepare to dredge to build a boat anchorage area to shelter fishermen from storms, clear waterways to prevent and minimize impacts when there are storms, rising sea levels... Among the solutions to prevent coastal disasters, planting mangrove forests is considered effective because of its low cost and high efficiency. For example, to have over 50 hectares of mangrove forests along the Bung River to Lach Van today, Dien Kim commune (Dien Chau) organized 3 planting campaigns in 1994, 1997 and 1998. Initially, the project was only about 20 hectares, but then the commune mobilized and people planted, protected and protected the area themselves, so the area was expanded to cover all the mangrove land with over 50 hectares. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu, Tien Tien 2 hamlet, Dien Kim commune said: “My family lives along the dike, so when the commune launched the forest planting campaign, the whole family immediately participated. After that, we, together with the neighbors, protected and preserved the mangrove forest to be as green as it is today. Since the mangrove forest was established, in addition to contributing to limiting landslides (caused by waves) and preventing saltwater intrusion, the forest is also a place where brackish water creatures such as crabs, clams, mussels, snails, etc. live, bringing income to about 30 - 50 people in the hamlet with an average income of 50 - 70 thousand VND/person/day. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thuy - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee added: "Each year, the revenue from the mangrove forest is about 600 - 700 million VND, mainly from crab seeds. Recently, a business expressed its intention to bid for the commune's mangrove forest area for enclosure and farming, but the commune refused...".

Currently, in addition to Dien Kim, some communes of Dien Chau such as Dien Bich have planted 150 hectares, Dien Van 100 hectares, accounting for 50% of the mangrove forest area of ​​the whole province and over 1,000 hectares of casuarina protective forest to block coastal sand... Besides, an effective solution is to convert some areas affected by mangroves to plant forests and aquaculture on salt production areas. Although there are no specific models or instructions, in reality, localities have implemented and done this quite well. Specifically, Dien Kim commune has converted over 90 hectares of brackish water lagoons, which were originally salt fields, to industrial shrimp farming (Intimex project); Dien Ngoc commune has converted 16 hectares, Dien Ky 20 hectares, Dien Van 35 hectares, Dien Trung 15 hectares of salt-making land that has been sweetened and brackish to fish farming and shrimp and crab farming very stably; Nghi Quang commune also converted some ineffective land areas lacking fresh water to shrimp farming with an area of ​​up to 27 hectares... Not only aquaculture, some districts of Quynh Luu, Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Cua Lo town also encourage people to raise cages (oysters, fish...) on rivers and seas. This is considered a solution to adapt to current climate change.

Mr. Cao Van Thai - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture of Dien Chau district said: "Since the State invested in building the sea and river dyke system, people in 9 coastal communes of Dien Chau have been assured every time there is a storm. The above actions are to respond to climate change. The district also regularly propagates to people to better understand climate change and response scenarios to minimize damage when storms, floods, and rains occur...". According to our survey, in Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Hoang Mai town, although the river and sea dykes have received investment from the State, there are still some unfinished sea dykes with slow progress. In addition, the upgraded dykes are based on old foundations or embankments, so their ability to resist high tides and landslides is very limited, only able to withstand level 10 storms; some irrigation bridges and dams are deteriorating, so they need to be promptly repaired...

Article and photos:Nguyen Hai