The Mekong Water Technology Innovations Institute has proposed piloting a soil bank model to better management of canal dredging and generate revenue from dredged soil in the Mekong Delta region.

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Trinh Cong Van, director of the institute, said at a conference on solutions to climate change adaptation in the Mekong Delta in Can Tho City last week that demand for canal dredging in the region has grown, especially at a time of serious drought hitting the region.

He said a soil bank is expected to help solve problems with ineffective handling and control of dredged soil as well as outdated dredging technology in the Mekong Delta.

Dredged soil would be stored in the bank for future ground leveling projects, instead of dumping it rampantly.

According to Van, active control of dredged soil will limit illegal soil disposal in many localities and negative impacts on the environment.

He stressed the need to work out medium and long terms plans for the soil bank to operate successfully.

The absence of a long-term plan for canal dredging would result in a lack of funding for implementing the soil bank as the demand is huge.

For example, the volume of soil needed to be dredged in Ca Mau Province is estimated at about 20 million cubic meters and other provinces in the region have great dredging demand.

At the conference, Nguyen Van Tinh, deputy director of the General Department of Irrigation, presented a project to mitigate the impact of climate change and promote sustainable livelihoods for the Mekong Delta.

The project has components for strengthening and systematizing database, managing the upstream of the region, adapting to saline water intrusion around the estuary, and protecting coastal areas of peninsulas.

Tinh said the objective of the project is to improve the capacity of planning to adapt to climate change in the Mekong Delta provinces as well as enhance resilience to climate change for better management and use of resources and water in selected provinces.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, vice chairman of Dong Thap Province, proposed carrying out a comprehensive irrigation study for the whole region.

The number of dams needed to be built for the project and their impact in the flooding and dry seasons, and scenarios for sea level rises should be taken into account to facilitate an overall assessment of the whole region.