Three temporary steel dams at the estuaries of Tra Tan, Ba Rai, Phu An (Cai Lay) connecting to the Tien River will be deployed when salinity increases to protect the durian “capital”.
The total cost of implementing 3 temporary dams is expected to be about 34 billion VND, of which about 6 billion VND is to buy steel piles. The temporary dams will protect more than 15,000 hectares of fruit trees, of which over 10,000 hectares are durian, accounting for 50% of the durian area in the province.
According to the agricultural sector scenario, the temporary dam will be closed when the salinity on Ham Luong River, Ben Tre (9 km from Tien River) is at 1.5 to 2 g/l. When closing the temporary dam, in case the production areas inside lack water, the agricultural sector will also deploy 3 pumping points at neighboring culverts to give farmers peace of mind.
The saltwater prevention dam on Nguyen Tan Thanh canal is under construction and is eligible to close when saltwater intrusion occurs. Image: Hoang Nam
Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang province Nguyen Van Man said that this year’s drought and saltwater intrusion season is predicted to be early and deep. Therefore, the unit proactively prevented salinity and stored water early to limit damage to fruit tree areas.
Previously, this province deployed 6 salinity prevention sluices along the Tien River in Chau Thanh and Cai Lay and a salinity prevention sluice on Nguyen Tan Thanh canal (Chau Thanh) with a total cost of more than 1,300 billion VND. Currently, these 7 sluice gates have been basically completed and can be closed when saltwater intrusion occurs.
Tien Giang is one of the provinces with the largest fruit growing area in the country, with more than 80,000 hectares and an annual output of over 1.8 million tons of fruits of all kinds. This place is also known as the durian “capital” of the West with a total area of about 20,000 hectares, of which half is concentrated in Cai Lay district.
This year, the floods are small, the rainy season ends early, the El Nino phenomenon lasts, experts say the West is at risk of severe drought, similar to the dry season of 2015-2016.
Hoang Nam