VietNamNet Bridge – Relevant authorities of southern coastal Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province are working out measures to clear the waterways to the Loc An seaport, which have been impeded by sand since early this year. This has posed a challenge to fishermen.

Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Tuan Quoc said they had assigned working teams to guide fishermen so that they could avoid getting caught in shoals.

"We have proposed to dredge the sand to allow fishermen to dock at the port," he said.

"We have also mapped out a plan to build embankments to help prevent sand encroachment," he added.

The port is home to about 1,000 boats and junks of fishermen in the Phuoc Hai and Loc An towns in Dat Do District and of fishermen from neighbouring Binh Dinh and Binh Thuan provinces.

However, the build up of sand has prevented most fishing boats from accessing the port. Muoi Hai, a local fisherman, said he, like many other fishermen, were forced to dock at the Vung Tau port.

However, it took more than six hours to get there by junks and cost them thousands of litres of diesel at a time when fuel prices were rising, Hai said.

Many fishermen tried to enter the port to sell marine products in spite of the sand encroachment but many of them got caught in the shoal, he said, adding that they had to have their boats rescued for between VND1.5-1.8 million (US$75-90).

Some boats were broken by waves, causing an estimated loss of several hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong, he said.

The annual sand encroachment typically happens during the first four months of the year.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News