Hundreds of metres of coastal land in the south central coastal province of Binh Thuan has been lost to the sea in the last ten years. Residents along the coastline live under the threat of homelessness as their house can be swallowed by the sea at any time due to climate change.

Hundreds of households used to be located on this beach for generations. Yet, this cluster has been gradually eliminated since 2007 due to erosion.

The sea has intruded some 200 metres inland along some 800 metres of coastline in La Gi town as of 2005, making  coastal clusters’ smaller and smaller. Even resettlement clusters are now under threat of erosion.

Despite the construction of a sea dyke at certain erosion spots in La Gi town, people’s lives here are still unstable as the dykes stand for only 1 year.

Binh Thuan, with its long coastline is among the most vulnerable localities in Vietnam to climate change. Landslides and erosion have been increasingly impacting local agricultural production, infrastructure, tourism and marine-based economies.

VNA