Vietnamese Farmers Livelihood Under Threat With Rising Seas

BEN TRE, VIETNAM - APRIL 28: Nguyen Thanh Nhat, 39, a water truck driver, pumps fresh water from his truck to client's storages on April 28, 2017 in Thua Duc Village, Binh Dai District, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam. Due to the lack of fresh water caused by salinization, people in Thu Duc Village need to buy fresh water from water truck from VND100,000 to VND200,000 (around US$4.5 to US$9) for 3 cubic meters. The Mekong River Delta is amongst the most vulnerable regions in South Vietnam, which is home to more than 17 million people and produces around half of the country's rice harvest with its fertile fields. However, climate change is causing the rise of salt content of water in land that has ben used for rice paddies, coconut groves and other crops, threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers and fishermen. The Vietnamese government report have stated that 40 percent of the delta could be submerged if sea levels rise by one-meter in decades to come while residents in the low-lying delta have already been affected by more frequent typhoons and heavier floods that could potentially drive hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, according to reports. As many locals have been forced to abandon their rice cultivation due to salinization and risk their livelihood on other ventures such as shrimp farming, reports also state that cycles and storms linked to climate change would not only risk the Mekong Delta, but also up to the coffee crops in the highlands as well as the Red River Delta in the north, affecting large areas near the country's capital, Hanoi. (Photo by Linh Pham/Getty Images)