Saltwater has intruded into nearly 20,000 hectares of rice fields inthe southernmost province of Ca Mau, Director of the provincialDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Van Su has said.

The situation is, for the most part, due to climate change impact and seawater level rise, he noted.

At the same time, local farmers themselves have also worsened theintrusion after they pumped sea water into their rice fields to raiseshrimps, thus affecting surrounding rice land.

Suwarned that saltwater intrusion will pollute the environment anddiminish the quality of land, which is unfavourable for both shrimp andrice farming.

To tackle the problem, the Ca MauPeople’s Committee has ordered its localities to build more breakwatersand water retention walls to prevent saline water.

It also plans to further educate farmers to raise their awareness of theissue and firmly handle intentional violations. In the long term, theprovince will consider converting poor-performing rice land into shrimpfarming areas.

With a coastline of 252km, Ca Mau hasan eastern sea dyke linked with Ganh Hao in the southern province ofBac Lieu . Meanwhile, its western sea dyke stretching from Phu Tandistrict to the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has sufferedheavy damage in parts, resulting into salt intrusion.

This has adversely affected production and livelihoods of thousands of local households.-VNA