Operation of 15 seaports along the Hau River in the Mekong Delta is proving ineffective due to shortage of any entry route for large vessels.
Vietnam Seaport Association said that 75 percent of export commodities in the Mekong Delta are transited by waterway or by land to ports in Ho Chi Minh City. Small vessels are transporting the remaining 25 percent of goods directly to ASEAN countries or the northern region before exporting.
Surveys made by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Can Tho City shows that it costs an extra of US$7-10 to transit a ton of goods from the Mekong Delta to HCMC or southeastern provinces.
According to statistics from the Can Tho Port Authority, 15 ports on Hau River are operating at 50 percent of their capacity with several running perfunctorily. The volume of goods via two largest ports in the Mekong Delta like Can Tho and Cai Cui has been very low and on a declining trend in recent years.
Lam Tien Dung, director of Cai Cui Port, said that the main reason is due to lack of any entry route for large vessels into these ports.
The only entry route now is through Dinh An Tributary. However, high deposits of silt have allowed vessels of only 5,000 tons to pass through. As a result, clearance of the Dinh An route is of utmost importance.
Doan Manh Dung, secretary general of HCMC Association on Marine Science, Technology and Economy, said that the Dinh An Tributary must be dredged to improve operations at seaports on the Hau River.
Phan Thanh Tien, director of Can Tho Port, said that authorized organs have spent billions of dong annually to dredge the 121km Dinh An entry route for the last 20 years, with VND29 billion (US$1.38 million) already being spent in 2012 for this purpose. However silt deposits have paralyzed all these efforts.
Tien proposed to let some companies from Singapore, England and Indonesia dredge the Dinh An route to draw out the sand to sell for projects in some Southeast Asian countries. Authorized organs should take advantage of this chance to broaden the tributary by 500 meters or even one kilometer.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed the Ministry of Transport and provinces in the Mekong Delta to work together and propose measures to dredge the Dinh An Tributary by May 30 at the latest.
