Vietnam is suffering its worst drought in nearly a century with salinisation hitting farmers especially hard in the crucial southern Mekong delta, reports say. Scientists blame the ongoing 2015-2016 El Niño weather phenomenon, one of the most powerful on record, for the current drought.
Water shortages have also hampered agriculture in nearby Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
“The water level of the Mekong River has gone down to its lowest level since 1926, leading to the worst drought and salinisation there,” Nguyen Van Tinh, deputy head of the hydraulics department under the Ministry of Agriculture, told AFP.
The low-lying and heavily cultivated Mekong region is home to more than 20 million people and is the country’s rice basket.
Intensive cultivation and rising sea levels already make it one of the world’s most ecologically sensitive regions.
Vietnam’s communist rulers have announced $3.8 million of financial assistance for affected areas.
The nation is the world’s second largest exporter of rice and coffee, two crops that are particularly vulnerable to drought.
