The situation leads to significant economic damage and severely affects livelihoods of the local residents.
On the afternoon of March 27, the house of Ms. Truong Hong Nga located in Kinh Nam Hamlet (An Minh Bac Commune, U Minh Thuong District, Ca Mau Province) subsided, tilted, and collapsed completely into the dry bed of the canal.
"The soil here is intruded by salt water. Plus, this year's intense and prolonged drought has caused rapid evaporation of water from the soil. That’s why the soil structure is not compact, leading to continuous land subsidence and landslide. The local authorities had issued warnings, and my family was also planning to relocate, but before we could take action, the house collapsed into the canal," Ms. Nga said.
Apart from Ms. Nga’s house, in the past week, there have been 7 cases of land subsidence and landslide, causing 7 sections of the concrete road with the length of 150 meters along Kinh Nam Hamlet to break, and even one bridge to collapse entirely.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, the Secretary of the Party Committee of An Minh Bac Commune, since the beginning of this year dry season, there have been 1,759 meters of 19 traffic routes along with three bridges, one hamlet’s cultural house and two resident houses that experienced complete damage due to land subsidence. The authorities and local functional departments have sealed off those sites while evacuating residents to safer areas.
According to the locals, there has never been such severe saltwater intrusion as this year, with damages increasing day by day, resulting in difficulties in their daily activities, transportation, and agricultural production.
In Ca Mau, according to Mr. Tran Tan Cong, the Chairman of the People Committee of Tran Van Thoi District, over the past month, land subsidence and landslide occur every day, with an average of 5-10 cases happening daily.
Until March 29, in Tran Van Thoi District, there are over 590 locations with the total length of 15,600 meters suffered from land subsidence and landslides, resulting in damage worth over tens of billion of VND.
For instance, one of the damaged locations is the road along the southern bank of the Quang Hao canal, making transportation very difficult. Trucks instead have to detour along the northern bank of the canal, which takes much more time. Moreover, despite such serious damage to the local infrastructure, the authorities cannot use heavy machinery for repairs as it may cause further landslides.
“There is no other way, the locals have to endure the difficulties and wait until the rainy season when the canals and ditches are full of water so that we can implement repair and upgrade the infrastructure” Mr. Tran Tan Cong added.
Not to mention, farmers are facing significant losses and hardships during the harvest season as many traders take advantage of the situation to pressure them into selling their crops at low prices.
Other coastal provinces in the Southwest such as Bac Lieu, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh have also experienced the loss of agricultural land, damage to houses, roads, and infrastructure due to extensive occurrence of land subsidence and landslides.
According to Mr. Dao Huy Hiep, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport of Kien Giang Province, the Deparment has recently submitted a proposal to the Provincial People's Committee regarding urgent measures to address the increasingly serious situation of landslides on the DT965 road outside the U Minh Thuong buffer zone.
For the remaining areas affected by landslides, they propose that the province instruct localities and relevant forces to implement safety measures such as installing landslide warning signs and warning lights, along with setting up barriers at landslide sites to alert drivers. They also suggest deploying personnel to the site to guide traffic, conducting daily inspections, and addressing new landslide spots. The department has also planned to repair landslide locations with a total budget of VND10 billion (US$403,249) from now until the end of 2025.
According to the People's Committee of Ca Mau province, the immediate solution to the current landslide situation is to support residents in relocating to safe areas. In the long term, the province needs to invest in the construction of 177 landslide prevention works along rivers and coastal areas, with a budget of over VND31 trillion (US$1,250,239), of which it is proposed that the central government support VND26,842 trillion (US$1,082,545).
