Low water levels in the Mekong Delta have allowed seawater to penetrate 56 miles inland, ruining vast swathes of cropland, says Reuters. The delta grows half of Vietnam’s rice and provides 60 percent of its shrimp and fish. Vietnam is suffering the worst drought in 90 years, with the El Niño weather pattern believed to be a factor. Vietnam says this year’s saltwater intrusion is unprecedented. “It could be the new normal along the mighty Mekong,” says Reuters. At least 39 hydroelectric dams are being built on the Mekong in China, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. “Environmentalists say they are also endangering traditional agriculture downstream, where there is now less fresh water for drinking and irrigation.”
Vietnam is a major exporter of rice, coffee, fish, pepper and shrimp. The government estimates losses of $250 million due to drought; 70-percent of the decline was in the delta. The drought has affected a third of the coffee farms in the central highlands. Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer and the third-largest rice exporter.