On February 16, Mr. Tran Ngoc Tam, Chairman of Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee, chaired a meeting to deploy solutions to prevent and respond to saltwater intrusion, landslides, and high tides occurring in the province.

Salinity on major rivers increases

At the meeting, Mr. Doan Van Danh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ben Tre, said that the salinity on the main rivers flowing through the province has increased for many days and combined with high tides, saltwater has encroached deep into canals and ditches in the fields, causing difficulties for people's lives and production.

Citing monitoring data from the Ben Tre Province Hydrometeorological Station from February 11 to present, Mr. Danh said that at Giao Hoa station on Cua Dai River (Chau Thanh District), the highest salinity is 6.30‰; at My Hoa station on Ham Luong River (Ben Tre City), the highest salinity is 5.30‰; at Vam Thom station on Co Chien River (Mo Cay Nam District), the highest salinity is 4.9‰; at Vam Mon station on Co Chien River (Cho Lach District), the salinity ranges from 0.3 - 0.5‰; salinity of 0.1‰ has reached Vinh Binh Commune, Cho Lach District.

This result shows that salt water has penetrated most communes in Ben Tre province, except for Phu Phung commune, Cho Lach district and some upstream communes in Chau Thanh district.

Currently, except for the tap water system of Ben Tre Water Supply and Drainage Joint Stock Company which is still stable (because the raw water source from Cai Co dam is not yet contaminated with salt) and 10 rural water plants (thanks to irrigation works, it is not yet contaminated with salt), most of the remaining water plants supply water to people with salinity equivalent to that of river water.

Specifically, in the two districts of Binh Dai and Ba Tri, the salinity of tap water ranges from 0.1 - 3.1‰; in Thanh Phu district, 0.3 - 2‰; in Mo Cay Nam district, 0.2 - 3‰; in Giong Trom district, 0.1-1.9‰; in Mo Cay Bac district, 0.1-2.7‰ and in Chau Thanh district, it ranges from 0.1-0.7‰.

Thus, most water plants in Ben Tre supply water to people with salinity greater than 0.5‰ (exceeding technical standards QCDP 01:2022/BTr of Ben Tre province).

Urgent prevention of saltwater intrusion

Mr. Tran Ngoc Tam said that with the current saline intrusion situation at the beginning of the 2023-2024 dry season, the possibility of severe saline intrusion like the two natural disasters in the 2015-2016 and 2019-2020 dry seasons could occur, even more severe in the upcoming peak salinity months.

In the immediate future, the Chairman of the Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee requested functional forces from the province to the grassroots to support people to overcome and minimize damage caused by landslides and inundation of orchards, fish ponds, etc. that have just occurred. At the same time, more urgently implement solutions to respond to saltwater intrusion that the Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee issued in a specific plan in September 2023.

In particular, it is necessary to regularly measure and check salinity and have a plan to take water in accordance with the development of salinity intrusion, provide salinity measurement data to localities and people to know so that they can plan to store and use fresh water reasonably. Have a plan to operate the RO system at water plants (with a system operation schedule and notify people about the water supply schedule through the RO system) in case the tap water has too high salinity...

In particular, it is necessary to plan for the rapid implementation of the solution of "transporting raw water by barge to water treatment plants" at a number of water plants in Tan Hao, Luong Phu, Phuoc Long, Long Dinh, and Binh Khanh Dong communes. The Chairman of the Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee requested the owners of private water plants in the province to be ready to implement this solution. Requested the specialized agencies of the province and the construction units to build temporary dams to prevent salinity to quickly complete the approved projects on schedule.