HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Saltwaterhas intruded early this year into the Mekong Delta’s coastal provinces,affecting the availability of freshwater for irrigation and household use.

Manyprovinces have been bracing for it following a forecast that the intrusion ofseawater up rivers would be early and severe this year.

Theyhave taken measures like dredging and shoring up canals, building temporarydams to keep out saltwater and store water for irrigation and installing watersupply facilities.

InTra Vinh province, saltwater has entered 50-55kilometres upstream in the Co Chien and Hau rivers, according to the local Departmentof Agriculture and Rural Development.

Pham Minh Truyen, director of the department, said theSouthern Institute of Water Resources Research had warned of unusually earlydrought and saltwater intrusion during the 2019-20 winter-spring rice crop.

Itwould be difficult to get freshwater at the Cai Hop sluice in the Co Chien riverand the Can Chong sluice in the Hau River between January and March, he said.

Thewater salinity at the Cai Hop sluice reached 5.4 per thousand lastweek.

Thedepartment has called on farmers to stop sowing the winter-spring rice.

Tra Vinh plans to grow 66,000ha of rice andfarmers have sowed more than 40 percent of it, according to the department.

Thedepartment, in cooperation with localitiesaffected by the saltwater, hashelped rice farmers switch to drought-resistant crops.

Ithas asked its Irrigation Sub-department to strengthen forecasting aboutsaltwater intrusion so that local authorities and farmers could take measuresto secure freshwater.

Ithas instructed the province’s Clean Water and Environment Sanitation Centre toensure daily supply of water to 9,000 rural households in areas vulnerable to drought and saltwaterintrusion.

Thedelta provinces have instructed farmers in saltwater-affected areas to storefreshwater in fields, ponds and containers to ensure they have enough water toirrigate their crops in the dry season.

Nguyen Thien Phap, head of Tien Giang province's Sub-department of Irrigation andFlood and Storm Prevention and Control, said the water levels in the upstreamareas of the Tien river, a distributary of the Mekong river, are very low.

Theprovince would suffer from severe saltwater intrusion and water shortage in thedry season, he said.

Seawaterhas flowed around 60km up the Tien river in Tien Giang province, the country’s largest fruitproducer, which has closed sluices and dams to keep out the saltwater and storefresh water to irrigate 150,000ha of rice, fruits and vegetables and supplyhouseholds./.