Since early this year, the sub-department of irrigation of An Giang and other agencies have surveyed areas with high risk of water shortage, drought and salinity.

At the same time, the province has planned to construct 409 irrigation works with a total length of 370km at a cost of 333.2 billion VND (14.65 million USD).

According to Vuong Huu Tieng, head of the An Giang Sub-department of Irrigation, the province has completed 10 percent of the works and hopes to finish another 20 percent soon.

Meanwhile, An Giang is expanding the capacity of operational waterworks, extending pipe systems and taking water from water plants from neighbouring localities.

The sub-department has also reserved more than 1,000 cubic metres of water in Xoai So and O Tuc Xa lakes to provide water for daily use and forest fire prevention.

Tieng added that although this year’s drought may not be as servere as last year, high temperatures will affect farming productivity.

The sub-department reported that An Giang faces water shortages for production in about 50,000 hectares of plain land and about 7,000 hectares in mountainous areas. Meanwhile, salinity may affect 17,064 hectares of farm in Tri Ton and Thoai Son districts and 2,000 hectares of fresh shrimp farms in Thoai Son and Chau Phu districts.

Thousands of households along the Long Xuyen-Rach Gia canal and mountainous areas of Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts are also at risk of water shortages, it said.

VNA