Overview of the meeting
Representatives from units of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Department of Water Resources Management, National Center for hydro-meteorological forecasting (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) and Mekong River Commission in Vietnam as well as a number of correspondents from press agencies attended and reported in the meeting.
According to the summary report from specialized agencies, in 2015, the Mekong Delta didn’t have floods, triggered deficient status of water in the systems of irrigation and low-lying areas along with rainy season arrived late and ended soon, decrease of Mekong river’s upstream flow, the lowest water level in 90 years. Saltwater intrusion occurred nearly earlier two months than the same period for many years and deeply into the land (the deepest up to 90 km). Up to now, 11/13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta are affected by saltwater intrusion. The total area of damaged crops from late 2015 until now are estimated about 210,000 ha. Roughly 250,000 households with more than 1,3 million people are living in lack of clean water. Forest fire hazard are warned at high level (level 4, level 5), especially forests in U Minh Thuong and U Minh Ha. A large number of evaporation water and lack of additional fresh water have affected drammatically to aquaculture. Additionally, capacity of disease outbreaks has raised.
Regarding to Mekong River’s upstream flow: According to diplomatic statements of China and Laos People's Democratic Republic: China will increase and maintain volume of releasing water of Jinghong Hydropower Plant at 2,190 m3/s from March 15 to April 10, 2016 and Laos will increase to release water of hydropower plants from March 23rd to the end of May in 2016 at 1,130 m3/s in order to deal with drought in Vietnam.