Clean water shortage threatens Vietnam

As many as 8.4 million Vietnamese people could suffer from clean water shortages by 2050 because of climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Vietnam is one of the five countries most seriously affected by climate change. Millions of hectares of land would be flooded and dozens of millions of residents would lose their houses as sea water rises, said experts from the bank.

Climate change has been affecting water levels in both rural and urban areas. In recent years, water levels in the Mekong River have risen by 41 percent in the rainy season, but dropped by 24 percent in the dry season.

More than 70 percent of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta is saline, with concentration levels of more than four grammes of salt per litre of water.

Due to rising sea levels, up to 0.3-0.5 million hectares of land in the Red River Delta, 0.4 million hectares in Central areas and 1.5-2 million hectares of land in the Mekong Delta would be flooded, the bank warned.