VietNamNet Bridge – Erosion of riverbanks in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta poses a serious threat this year, experts warn.

In Dong Thap Province, land erosions occurred in three places in Hong Ngu District last month, affecting 10 houses and eroding 40m of dykes in Long Khanh A and Long Thuan communes.

Le Van Hung, head of the province Flood and Storm Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue Committee's Steering Board Office, said land erosions were threatening nearly 100 sites and thousands of houses along rivers.

Hung said land erosions had reached an ‘alarming' level.

The provincial People's Committee recently ordered the relocation of nearly 3,000 families living in erosion-prone areas.

An Giang Province has 56 sites threatened by erosion, 14 sites more than in 2009.

In the past, severe land erosion only occurred in An Giang and Dong Thap, the two upstream provinces, but it has now spread to in Vinh Long, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and Ca Mau provinces, according to the Department for Evaluation and Assessment of Environmental Impact.

Landslides have started to occur in several places even in the dry season in recent years.

Tran Anh Thu, deputy director of the An Giang Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said land erosion would be the worst ever this year.

It would be severe at the end of this year's flooding season because of the overexploitation of sand from riverbeds and climate change, the experts said.

They blamed this on the shortage of human resources to manage the sand mining and the lack of punishment.

Every year, erosions along riverbanks claim more than 300ha of land.

But all local authorities do is survey areas that are at risk of erosion and encourage residents there to move to safer areas.

But even this proves difficult because most people living along rivers and canals are very poor while funds for relocating them are limited, the authorities complain.

In Ben Tre Province alone, 9,000 households need to be moved out of erosion-prone areas.

By the end of last year, An Giang had moved around 3,700 households, but this figure is insignificant compared to the total number that have to be relocated, according to the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment.