China will release more water from a dam in its southwestern province of Yunnan to help alleviate a drought in parts of Southeast Asia, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, following an initial release begun last month.
Tag: drought
Vietnam seeks Netherlands’ help in preserving water in Mekong Delta
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Chu Pham Ngoc Hien made the call at the fifth meeting of the Vietnam – Netherlands Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change Adaptation and Water Management in Hanoi on March 30.
He noted that the issue had been raised in the committee’s fourth meeting but so far no suitable partners were found for the work.
The Deputy Minister highlighted the success of Mekong Delta Plan, adding that after reviewing the recommendations made by the plan, Vietnam realised that more in-depth measures are needed to improve water management in the Delta.
Govt. expedites diversion of water from Mekong
The Royal Irrigation Department has confirmed that the public sector is trying to increase water volumes in the country especially by diverting water from the Mekong river to drought-hit areas.
Expert from the Royal Irrigation Department Sanya Saengphumphong said the department was conducting a study on how to divert water from the Mekong for use and building temporary pumping stations with the capacity of 40 million cubic meters. The pumping stations are expected to benefit more than 10,000 Rai of drought-hit areas. The pumping stations will be upgraded into permanent ones with the capacity of 100 million cubic meters in 2017.
The department also had a plan to divert water from the Moei and Salween rivers in Myanmar into the Bhumibol dam in Thailand, said the expert.
Water management center for Mekong River to be established
The Prime Minister has revealed a water management center will be set up under the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) to manage water levels in the Mekong River more effectively.
Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha said after returning from the first MLC meeting in China that the water management center will alert countries in the Mekong River Basin to be prepared whenever China discharges water into the river.
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta hit by worst drought in years
THE southern tip of Mekong Delta in Vietnam in the country’s prime fertile rice-growing region has been hit by the worst drought the country has seen in recent years.
Accompanied by a saline intrusion, the drought is reported to have affected over a million people who face water shortages in the region.
This has spurred China to dispense twice the amount of water from a hydropower station to aid the situation.
Officials blamed the drought on the El Nino weather phenomenon and excessive construction of hydropower dams on the upper stream of the river, the Associated Press reported.
Yesterday, director of the department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Ma Quang Trung was quoted as saying the level of inland saline intrusion was unprecedented, resulting in damage to some 180,000 hectares (444,780 acres) of paddy fields.
A request to China to regulate the water flow from upstream Mekong river
Mekong Delta Region (MDR) is the largest rice field of Vietnam now facing the serious drought and water shortage. There are 7 provinces in Mekong Delta region is damaged by salinization. The cause of this situation is the depletion of water supplies by the Mekong River. In order to dealing with this situation, in Hanoi 3 March, 2016, Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister has a working session with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the Mekong River Commission of Vietnam on research impact of hydropower projects on the Mekong mainstream.
Groundwater shortage could jeopardise 1.5 million farmers: study
Amid late-arriving rains and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, groundwater supplies are shrinking, a fact that could leave 1.5 million Cambodian farmers unable to water their crops within 15 years, according to a study published last month in the Journal of Hydrology.
The study by Laura Erban and Steven Gorelick of the department of earth system science at Stanford University found that a growing reliance on groundwater use – which has grown by 10 per cent annually in recent years – may drop the water table below the “lift limit” of suction pump wells.
“Extensive groundwater irrigation jeopardises access for shallow domestic water supply wells, raises the costs of pumping for all groundwater users, and may exacerbate arsenic contamination and land subsidence that are already widespread hazards in the region,” the study authors wrote.
Even if the Kingdom starts drawing more irrigation water from rivers and lakes, its options are limited, the study found.
PM urged to give nod to Mae Wong Dam
Thailand Prime Minister urged to reconsider building the Mae Wong Dam — and lease land to local people to dig reservoirs to fight the serious drought. It is estimated that water in Ubonrat Dam in Khon Kaen province will last for only another 40 days, The irrigation chief says dam would help thousands.
Drought-hit Thailand taps Mekong water
Facing a severe drought this year, Thailand is pumping water from the Mekong river to irrigate farms inland. It also wants to divert larger volumes, despite warnings from environmentalists about the downstream impact.
Pumping is now taking place in north-eastern Thailand, a parched region separated from Laos by the Mekong. In Nong Khai province, where a sluice gate between the Mekong and its tributary located within Thailand is now closed, temporary pumps are extracting water from the river at a rate of 15 cu m per second to water crops.
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta faces most serious drought, salinization in 90 years
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is facing the most severe drought and salinization in nearly a century, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The serious conditions have occurred only once in the last 90 years, the ministry said at the conference in Can Tho City on Wednesday.
Prompt and assertive measures must be applied in order to prevent the heavy damage brought about by drought and salinization in order to ensure the lives and production of local citizens, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc remarked at the meeting.
The deputy premier ordered competent authorities to prioritize a financial support plan for the localities in the delta for speedy approval by the prime minister.