After the storm, Hoang Mai residents overcome flooded shrimp farming areas

(Baonghean.vn) - Storm No. 10 caused high tides to flood many shrimp farming areas of Hoang Mai Town. Immediately after the storm dissipated, shrimp farmers urgently repaired the situation and continued to care for the remaining shrimp.

After the storm, Mr. Vo Van Thang had to hire an excavator to level the ground to make room for walking in the shrimp farming area. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Vo Van Thang, owner of a shrimp pond in Block 5, Quynh Xuan Ward - Hoang Mai Town, said: starting from noon on September 15, heavy rains in the rice fields, combined with high tides, caused seawater to flood into all 8 shrimp ponds of his family. Of the total 8 ponds, 3 have 60-day-old shrimp, and 3 have newly released shrimp.

When the storm arrived, he predicted that the tide would rise, so he hired a truck to transport nearly 1,000 cubic meters of soil to the banks of the Mai Giang River to prevent flooding. However, because the tide was too high, he could not stop the water.

Mr. Vo Van Thang in Block 5, Quynh Xuan Ward raised shrimp for 60 days, weighing 70 - 80 kg. After the water receded, through inspection, about 50% of the shrimp drifted away with the water. Photo: Xuan Hoang

After the storm passed, he hired an excavator to level the land to make a path. Regarding the shrimp, after checking, the number of shrimp left in the pond was about 40 - 50%.

Not only the shrimp were damaged, but many of the machinery and equipment used to raise shrimp: generators and electric motors were also flooded and damaged. He had to change the motor at an electrical repair shop to run a fan to take care of the shrimp. The biggest concern is that the water source in the pond is not guaranteed, causing diseases for the shrimp in the future. In total, storm No. 10 caused hundreds of millions of dong in damage to Mr. Thang's family.

Seawater flooded the shrimp farming area of ​​Quynh Lien commune, causing damage to many shrimp farming equipment and machines. In the photo: Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Sang in hamlet 9, Quynh Lien commune sadly looks at the generator that is no longer working due to being flooded by seawater. Photo: Xuan Hoang

In Quynh Lien commune (Hoang Mai town), high tides and seawater overflowing the Mai Giang river dike caused damage to many hectares of shrimp. The most serious damage was to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Sang's family in hamlet 9, whose 4 ponds totaling nearly 1 hectare had shrimp for more than 60 days. His shrimp farming system and many of his shrimp farming machines were also damaged.

Mr. Cao Xuan Phuong - Vice Chairman of Quynh Lien Commune People's Committee said: Before storm No. 10 made landfall, the commune contacted the excavator owner to stand guard on the Mai Giang river dike to prevent rising sea levels to scoop up soil to block the water. Because the project to prevent salinity and upgrade the Mai Giang river dike was under construction, there were still about 200 m of soil that had not been filled to raise the dike surface. When the tide rose, the commune mobilized many human resources: Youth Union, rapid response team, strong platoon, combined with excavators, to promptly prevent rising sea levels, thus limiting damage to the local shrimp farming area. However, more than 2 hectares of shrimp ponds and 230 hectares of vegetables were flooded.

The electrical system serving shrimp farming is damaged and people have not had time to fix it. Photo: Xuan Hoang

After the storm, the locality propagated and mobilized people to urgently return to the fields to produce, replant heavily affected vegetable areas, and take care of lightly affected vegetable areas. For aquaculture areas, the commune encouraged people to actively take care of shrimp, combine disease prevention for shrimp, and completely lost areas, renovate ponds to raise shrimp for the third crop or wait for the main crop in 2018.

According to the data of the Economic Department - Hoang Mai Town: Storm No. 10 caused flooding of 200 hectares of rice, damage of 30 - 70%; 289 hectares of various vegetables, 90 hectares of turmeric. Flooded and lost 55.7 hectares of shrimp farming; 2.4 hectares of crab farming; 4.5 hectares of freshwater fish; 4.4 hectares of clams; 15 cages for raising red snapper and sea bass at the mouth of Lach Con River. 24 hectares of salt production were flooded and lost. Rising sea levels combined with high tides and big waves caused water to overflow the section adjacent to the anti-erosion embankment and sea dyke in Rong village, Quynh Lap commune, about 150 m long. Damaged 04 national dyke systems in Quynh Loc commune, damage estimated at over 250 million VND.

Currently, localities are guiding people to overcome damage, paying special attention to aquaculture areas.

Xuan Hoang