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Central region’s people suffering drought

Friday, April 18, 2014
No drop of rain has been felt in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan Provinces over the last five months. People have been struggling to survive the drought, while plants have been fading under the scorching sun.


The 700 households of Ham Can Commune in Binh Thuan have had a serious lack of running water for one month. Till recently, locals had managed to handle the drought thanks to the reserves of water in the local rivers and lakes. But now a sense of doom is descending. The rivers and streams, canals and water wells are drying up. There is no water for daily life activities.
Many trees on the road to the hamlets 1 and 2 of Ham Can have died. And, people are struggling to make do..
“We have to travel 20 kilometers to the Ham Thanh Commune to buy water on the nod,” said Mang Thi Thuy, 45, in Hamlet 1. “We don’t have money to pay for the water right now. We’ll pay when we finish harvesting the farm produce”.
Linh River, the main water source for Ham Can, is now bone dry. But local people still come, trying to glean whatever little is possible. They dig small makeshift wells, desperate to pump out every drop they can.
“After you dig the holes, you have to stay there and wait all night to get a few buckets of water,” said Mang Can, a resident in Hamlet 1.
In Hamlet 3 of Ham Can, the dragon fruits, cultivated on tens of hectares of land, are withering. Local farmers have been trying to save the fruits by watering the trees moderately with water from a pond.
“Cai River is the only water source in the hamlet. But it is now depleted. Local people dig wells for water, but the water is not safe enough due to the high alum level,” said Nguyen Van Khanh, a local farmer.
The same situation has been seen in Thuan Bac District of Ninh Thuan Province. According to local authorities, at least 800 households of the five communes in the district are living with a serious water shortage.
Chair of the Phuoc Khang Commune People’s Committee, Kato Duong, said the local clean water supply system has stopped operating for the last two months, because the stream which provides water is exhausted.
In Xom Bang Hamlet of Cong Hai Commune, population 3,000, people have had to travel 3-4 kilometers and carry every can of water home for daily use, though the water is considered unhygienic.
The lack of water has upset both lives and livelihoods. The Ninh Thuan provincial Agriculture Department has recommended that farmers in Thuan Nam District not cultivate 1,500 hectares of rice, so as to reserve the water for the hundreds of hectares of [other]  farm produce and cattle.
According to the Ninh Thuan Irrigation Works Company, the five water reservoirs in Thuan Nam District can provide water to 50,000 people and cattle for only a few more months.
“There will be a disaster if it does not rain by June,” said Luu Ngoc Le from the agriculture department.
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