HANOI, 24 April – About 73,900 households[1], or about 77,000 children based on an estimate by Save the Children, in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta have limited access to fresh water[2] following a weeks-long heatwave that has seen salt seep into fresh water sources in the country’s biggest rice growing region.
Seawater flows into the Mekong River Delta, located in the far south of the country, every year but the low-lying delta, also known as Vietnam’s rice bowl, has become extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels due to climate change.[3]