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Mekong River Delta, Vietnam
A few years ago I passed through Vietnam. I was only there for seven days but I made the most of it by signing on to a tour of the Mekong River Delta area. I the trip was four days long and cost about $40. Most of the traveling was done in small boats, weaving our way through various waterways, visiting small rice farmer villages. Fifteen million Vietnamese live in the tropical wetlands of the Mekong Delta. The canals are their avenues; the irrigation channels, their back alleys.
The vast river delta is formed by the vast tributaries of the mighty Mekong River which has its origin in the Tibetan highland plateau 2,800 miles away. From its source, the river makes its way through China, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam before flowing out into the South China Sea. The Mekong's Vietnamese name, Cuu Long, means Nine Dragons for the nine mouths that terminate the flow of this great river as it is absorbed by the sea. Since ancient times, the wetlands of the Mekong Delta have acted like sponges, storing and slowly releasing high water during the monsoons, making it ideal for cultivating rice. The river not only irrigates, it refreshes the land with rich alluvial soil.
But recent upstream river engineering has also resulted in deforestation. Like the Mississippi and Amazon basins, the floodplains that helped regulate the ebb and flow of the Mekong are being cleared, making the annual monsoon floods more severe and life more difficult.
The silt brown river also nourishes one of the largest river fisheries in the world. For the people of the delta, fish is the primary source of protein. Upstream demands have reduced the river's flow, allowing salt water from the South China Sea to invade the land. Ironically, prosperity has brought a series of environmental threats to the fish farmers of Chau Doc. Sewage systems struggle to keep pace with development. Run-off waters, tainted by fertilizers and pesticides drain into the river. If these waters become polluted, a newly-found prosperity could disappear. But for now, at least, the river is clean.
Naiposte kay . sa Thu Oct 30 13:56:18 EST 2003 ni david.
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