Kien Giang (VNS/VNA) - Local people living in the buffer zone next toU Minh Thuong National Park in Kien Giang province have been suffering fromsevere drought in recent times.

During the peak of the dry season, all the canals have dried up causing majordifficulties in the communes of Minh Thuan and An Minh Bac in U Minh Thuong district.

Boats have been left stranded making it impossible to transport agriculturalproduce to the markets, and some traders have been forced to cut the produces'prices in half.

Hundreds of hectares of vegetables and 1,500ha of bananas have been affected bythe extreme weather.

Nguyen Minh Trong, a banana farmer in An Minh Bac commune, said: “Due to theprolonged drought, saline intrusion and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the priceof bananas has dropped sharply.”

“Previously, I could sell a bunch of bananas for 6,000 VND (0.25 USD), but nowthe price is less then 3,000 VND,” Trong said.

“Although the price has reduced dramatically, I still cannot sell becausetraders can no longer reach us by boat,” he said.

This has forced farmers to pay to transport their produce to markets in thetownship, and that is costing them a lot of money.

In Minh Thuan commune, many vegetable gardens have been badly damaged by theextreme heat and drought.

The weather has destroyed 400ha of shrimp farms.

Along with losses to agricultural production, local people in U Minh Thuong arefacing serious land erosion, and some houses are at risk of collapsing into therivers.

According to Pham Duy Tan, deputy head of the agriculture and rural developmentdepartment of U Minh Thuong disrict, water levels in canals had dropped sharplycausing roads to collapse.

An initial survey showed that there were seven cases of erosion on the dykesystem outside the U Minh Thuong National Park.

One case stretches 168m, and 40m of road has been totally destroyed.

These landslides have made it difficult for people to travel and transportgoods.

Facing the complicated developments of drought and hot weather, the district’sagricultural workers have advised farmers in the two communes to use watereconomically to maintain irrigation for their crops and orchards.

Sowing rice crops should be delayed until the rains came, they added.

Authorities in Minh Thuan and An Minh Bac have asked families living inlandslide-risk areas to move to safer places./.