VietNamNet Bridge - Many areas in the central region are suffering from severe drought and saline intrusion. 

According to deputy chair of Dak Lak province Y Dham Enuol, the industrial crops grown on a large area in the province include coffee, rubber and pepper which need heavy irrigation. 

However, the province has been facing drought for many months with water levels at reservoirs falling to below standard levels.

“We wish a typhoon would rush down and bring rains. If not, the crops will die of drought,” said Y Dham Enuol.

Hoang Duc Cuong, director of the Central Meteorological Forecast Center, said that the extreme weather began appearing in late 2014. Now is the peak season. 

In the south and Central Highlands, the rainy season ended in October, one month earlier than usual. In the central region, the rainfall, river stream and water levels at reservoirs are forecast to be lower by 30-50 percent than that last year. Meanwhile, the figures would be 20-40 percent for the south and Central Highlands.

The saline intrusion began in October, earlier than expected in Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Ca Mau and Ben Tre, which is believed to be more severe in upcoming months.

Meanwhile, scientists predict that El Nino would only end in March 2016, but its influence would still last until June 2016. 

Cuong said that one or two typhoons would land in the East Sea and that ‘hopefully, a typhoon would land in the central region and bring rain to the land”.

Le Thanh Hai, a senior official of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE), confirmed that the provinces of Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Khanh Hoa and Central Highlands are now at the center of the drought. 

About 40 percent of the water volume for the southern part of the central region would depend on typhoons, because locals cannot expect rains in normal conditions.

Hai pointed out that it is necessary to think of programming water sources and water reservoirs for long term use rather than short-term solutions, and that the model in Japan is being considered by Vietnam for the central region. 

Pumped storage power plants have been built in the country, which use the excess electricity output at night to pump water in the lower course to water reservoirs to store.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said central provinces should save water by shifting from cultivating rice to industrial crops.

Thien Nhien