Mekong Delta

Coordinates: 10°02′N 105°48′E / 10.04°N 105.80°E / 10.04; 105.80
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mekong Delta
Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long
Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông
US$ 36.151 billion (2021)
Time zoneUTC+07:00 (ICT)

The Mekong Delta (Vietnamese: Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit.'Nine Dragon River Delta' or simply Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, 'Mekong River Delta'), also known as the Western Region (Vietnamese: Miền Tây) or South-western region (Vietnamese: Tây Nam Bộ), is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of south-western Vietnam of over 40,500 km2 (15,600 sq mi).[2] The size of the area covered by water depends on the season. Its wet coastal geography makes it an important source of agriculture and aquaculture for the country.

The delta has been occupied as early as the 4th century BC. As a product of Khmer, Vietnamese, Chinese, and French settlement in the region, the delta and its waterways have numerous names, including the Khmer term Bassac to refer to the lower basin and the largest river branch flowing through it.[3] After the 1954 Geneva Conference, Vietnam was split into two[4] with South Vietnam inheriting the southern half of Vietnam becoming the State of Vietnam and eventually the Republic of Vietnam, also known as South Vietnam, with their own administrative states (see Category:Provinces of South Vietnam). After 1975, the Mekong Delta ceased being a part of the Republic of Vietnam, succeeded by the current Vietnamese nation. Today, the region comprises 12 provinces: Long An, Đồng Tháp, Tiền Giang, An Giang, Bến Tre, Vĩnh Long, Trà Vinh, Hậu Giang, Kiên Giang, Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu, and Cà Mau, along with the province-level municipality of Cần Thơ.

The Mekong Delta has been dubbed a 'biological treasure trove'. Over 1,000 animal species were recorded between 1997 and 2007 and new species of plants, fish, lizards, and mammals have been discovered in previously unexplored areas, including the Laotian rock rat, thought to be extinct.[5] The low-lying coastal geography of the region makes it vulnerable to climate change caused sea level rise, alongside related issues such as coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion.

History

Funan and Chenla period

Hindu god Vishnu found at Óc Eo
(6–7th century AD).

The Mekong Delta was likely inhabited long since prehistory with the civilizations of

Austroasiatic people. Khmer inscriptions appear during the Chenla
period.

Angkor Borei is a site in the Mekong Delta that existed between 400 BC-500 AD. This site had extensive maritime trade networks throughout Southeast Asia and with India, and is believed to have possibly been the ancient capital to the civilization of Funan.[7]

Cambodian and Champa incursions

In the early 15th century,

Bien Hoa. He installed a statue of Tribhuvanākrānta (Visnu) there to mark the southern most extent of Champa.[8][9] In 1757, Vietnamese lords had acquired control of Cà Mau. By the 1860s, French colonists had established control over the Mekong Delta and established the colony of French Cochinchina
.

Vietnamese period

Scene of a Mekong Delta town in 18th century. Watercolour lithograph by Jean-François Daumont, circa 1760.

The Vietnamese acquisition of the Mekong Delta can be divided into two phases:

Marriage agreement and interventions, 1620–1698

In 1621, Lord

Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu).[10]

In 1658, without any excuses, the Nguyễn invaded Cambodia and deposed the only Khmer Muslim king

Biên Hoà In 1688, the Chinese revolted against Nguyễn lords. King Ang Nan died in 1691, and the revolt was soon resolved.[11]

After fully subjugating

Long An were officially obtained by the Nguyễn, more Vietnamese settlers moved into the new conquered lands. In 1708, Mạc Cửu of Hà Tiên also pledged loyalty to the Nguyễn lords.[11]

Conquest of the Mekong Delta, 1754–1757

In the 18th century, the edges of the Mekong Delta bordering with Cambodia had been mainly inhabited by isolated communities of

Kunlun) by Vietnamese sources, while most of the Delta remained under Cambodian control. Under the reign of king Chey Chettha V, in 1750 he began subduing and persecuting the Cham–Malay Muslims, who at the time were close allies of the Nguyễn lords. Using that pretext, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát launched an full-scale invasion of Cambodia in 1754, with the army under the command of general Nguyễn Cư Trinh. 10,000 Vietnamese troops divided into two groups, rolled into Cambodia and completely flattened Cambodian resistance and easily captured its capital Phnom Penh in summer of 1754. King Chey Chettha V fled to Longvek.[12]

The Muslims rose up and joined the Vietnamese chasing the Cambodians. Due to heavy spring rain, the Muslim segment lost contact with the main army of Nguyễn Cư Trinh, and were surrounded by 10,000 Cambodians at Vô Tà Ân in early 1755. Muslim troops piled carts and wagons into a defensive perimeter and stood their ground against Cambodian attacks until being relieved by Nguyễn Cư Trinh. With the help of mediation by Mạc Thiên Tứ of Hà Tiên, a ceasefire agreement was reached between King Chey Chettha V and Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát in 1756: Cambodia ceded Gò Công and Tân An to the Vietnamese, Chey Chettha V was deposed, while Ang Tong was restored as King of Cambodia. Ang Tong offered the Nguyễn two districts of Trà Vinh (Preah Trapeang) and Ba Thắc (Bassac) as tributes.[13]

In 1757, Ang Tong died and was succeeded Outey II. With the help of the Nguyễn Lords and Pricipality of Hà Tiên, Outey II regained the throne from usurpers. He gave all remaining Mekong Delta lands to Mạc Thiên Tứ, and Mạc Thiên Tứ swapped all these areas to the Nguyễn in exchange for the Mạc clan's total autonomy in Hà Tiên. The new lands were divided into two districts: Rạch Giá and Cà Mau.[13] By 1757, all of today's Mekong Delta including the Cape Cà Mau firmly came under Vietnamese control.[13]

Nguyễn dynasty, French and modern period

In 1802 Nguyễn Ánh crowned himself emperor Gia Long and unified all the territories comprising modern Vietnam, including the Mekong Delta.

Upon the conclusion of the

PACVs) plus the Army of the Republic of Vietnam 7th, 9th, and 21st Infantry Divisions. As a military region the Mekong Delta was encompassed by the IV Corps Tactical Zone (IV CTZ)
.

In 1975, North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong soldiers launched a

Le Van Hung and Nguyen Khoa Nam, committed suicide. At Binh Thuy Air Base some ARVN soldiers and air base personnel who defended the air base were evacuated by helicopters and several jet fighters to Thailand shortly after hearing Minh's surrender. Within hours, VC soldiers occupied the base and captured those ARVN and air base personnel who didn't escape.[17] In My Tho, Brigadier General Tran Van Hai, who was in charged protecting National Highway 4 (now NH1A) from Saigon to Can Tho, committed suicide. Tran was one of the three ARVN generals who refused to be evacuated by American when the North Vietnamese soldiers invaded Saigon.[18] Several ARVN soldiers continued to fight against the VC but later either surrendered or disbanded when faced with VC counterattacks.[19]

In the late 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer the Delta region. This campaign precipitated the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge.

Geography

Mekong River Delta from space, February 1996.

The Mekong Delta, as a region, lies immediately to the west of Ho Chi Minh City (also called Saigon by locals), roughly forming a triangle stretching from Mỹ Tho in the east to Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên in the northwest, down to Cà Mau at the southernmost tip of Vietnam, and including the island of Phú Quốc.[20]

The Mekong Delta region of Vietnam displays a variety of physical landscapes, but is dominated by flat flood plains in the south, with a few hills in the north and west. This diversity of terrain was largely the product of tectonic uplift and folding brought about by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates about 50 million years ago. The soil of the lower Delta consists mainly of sediment from the Mekong and its tributaries, deposited over thousands of years as the river changed its course due to the flatness of the low-lying terrain.[21]

The present Mekong Delta system has two major distributary channels, both discharging directly into the East Sea. The river carries over 160 million tons of sediment, including 6.5 million tons of sand, each year.[22][23] Historic sediment loads are estimated to be higher, but have been reduced due to damming for hydropower in the upper reaches of the Mekong River Basin, and sand mining in the riverbed.[24] Sediment is the driving factor in building the delta seaward (progradation), and upward (aggradation) from seasonal flooding, and is counteracted by coastal erosion and sea level rise.

The Holocene history of the Mekong Delta shows delta progradation of about 200 km during the last 6 kyr. During the Middle Holocene the Mekong River was discharging waters into both the East Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.[25] The water entering the Gulf of Thailand was flowing via a palaeochannel located within the western part of the delta; north of the Camau Peninsula.[26] Upper Pleistocene prodeltaic and delta front sediments interpreted as the deposits of the palaeo-Mekong River were reported from central basin of the Gulf of Thailand.[27][28]

The Mekong Delta is the region with the smallest forest area in Vietnam. 300,000 ha (740,000 acres) or 7.7% of the total area are forested as of 2011. The only provinces with large forests are

Kiên Giang Province, together accounting for two-thirds of the region's forest area, while forests cover less than 5% of the area of all of the other eight provinces and cities.[29]

Coastal erosion

Shoreline change (m/yr)
Zones 1973–1979 1973–1979 1987–1995 1987–1995 1987–1995 43-yr average
Zone-1 8.66 8.07 12.07 9.68 4.52 8.87
Zone-2 −10.32 −8.00 −12.22 −13.15 −20.9 −12.79
Zone-3 28.15 23.33 27.55 19.48 11.83 21.53
Zone-4 8.43 2.48 3.57 -10.03 −4.53 −1.66
All areas 7.77 6.11 7.84 2.75 −1.42 4.36
Area change (km2/yr)
Zones 1973–1979 1973–1979 1987–1995 1987–1995 1987–1995 43-yr average
Zone-1 1.94 2.01 2.96 2.25 1.15 2.12
Zone-2 −1.39 −1.87 −2.23 −1.75 −1.71 −1.71
Zone-3 2.82 2.16 1.71 1.09 1.64 1.99
Zone-4 0.95 0.35 −0.53 −0.56 −1.13 −0.18
All areas 4.32 2.64 1.91 1.03 −0.05 2.23

From 1973 to 2005, the Mekong Delta's seaward shoreline growth decreased gradually from a mean of 7.8 m/yr to 2.8 m/yr, becoming negative after 2005, with a retreat rate of −1.4 m/yr. The net deltaic land area gain has also been slowing, with the mean rate decreasing from 4.3 km2/yr (1973–1979) to 1.0 km2 yr (1995–2005), and then to −0.05 km2/yr (2005–2015). Thus, in about 2005, the subaerial Mekong Delta transitioned from a constructive mode to an erosional (or destructive) mode.[30][31]

Climate change concerns

Being a low-lying coastal region, the Mekong Delta is particularly susceptible to floods resulting from rises in sea level due to

sedimentation enhancing strategy. This will not only increase the water retention capacity of the upper delta region, alleviating pressure on the lower delta, but also reintroduce sediment-rich water which may result in land elevation.[34] Another problem caused by climate change is the increasing soil salinity near the coasts. Bến Tre Province is planning to reforest coastal regions to counter this trend.[35]

The duration of inundations at an important road in the city of Can Tho is expected to continue to rise from the current total of 72 inundated days per year to 270 days by 2030 and 365 days by 2050. This is attributed to the combined influence of sea-level rise and

land subsidence,[36] which occurs at about 1.1 cm (0.43 in) annually.[37]
Several projects and initiatives on local, regional and state levels work to counter this trend and save the Mekong Delta. For example, there exists a programme for integrated coastal management that is supported by Germany and Australia.[38]

In August 2019, a

below sea level by 2050.[39]

Demographics

Mekong Delta

The inhabitants of the Mekong Delta region are predominantly ethnic

Trà Vinh provinces. The region had a population of 17.33 million people in 2011.[29]

The population of the Mekong Delta has been growing relatively slowly in recent years, mainly due to out-migration. The region's population only increased by 471,600 people between 2005 and 2011, while 166,400 people migrated out in 2011 alone. Together with the central coast regions, it has one of the slowest growing populations in the country. Population growth rates have been between 0.3% and 0.5% between 2008 and 2011, while they have been over 2% in the neighbouring southeastern region.[29] Net migration has been negative in all of these years. The region also has a relatively low fertility rate, at 1.8 children per woman in 2010 and 2011, down from 2.0 in 2005.[29]

Provinces

Province-
Level
Division
Capital Area Population
(May 2023)
Population
density
(km2) (mile²) (persons/km2) (persons/mile²)
An Giang
Long Xuyên 3,536.8 1,365.6 2,068,251 625.0 1,619
Bạc Liêu
Bạc Liêu 2,584.1 997.7 1,109,425 317.4 822
Bến Tre
Bến Tre 2,360.2 911.3 1,337,704 573.4 1,485
Cà Mau
Cà Mau 5,331.7 2,058.6 1,375,612 231.1 599
Đồng Tháp
Cao Lãnh
3,376.4 1,303.6 1,844,768 494.0 1,279
Hậu Giang
Vị Thanh 1,601.1 618.2 859,053 497.7 1,289
Kiên Giang
Rạch Giá 6,348.3 2,451.1 1,800,451 265.4 687
Long An
Tân An
4,493.8 1,735.1 1,737,963 316.7 820
Sóc Trăng
Sóc Trăng 3,312.3 1,278.9 1,261,334 385.3 998
Tiền Giang
Mỹ Tho 2,484.2 959.2 1,908,352 691.3 1,790
Trà Vinh
Trà Vinh 2,295.1 886.1 1,072,720 451.7 1,170
Vĩnh Long
Vĩnh Long 1,479.1 571.1 1,101,251 714.6 1,851
Cần Thơ (municipality) 1,401.6 541.2 1,462,605 813.3 2,106

Economy

Floating market of Cần Thơ

The Mekong Delta is by far Vietnam's most productive region in agriculture and aquaculture, while its role in industry and foreign direct investment (FDI) is much smaller.

Agriculture

2.6 million ha in the Mekong Delta are used for agriculture, which is one fourth of Vietnam's total.

Bạc Liêu Province (42%).[29]
The region's land used for growing cereals makes up 47% of the national total, more than northern and central Vietnam combined. Most of this is used for rice cultivation.

Rice output in 2011 was 23,186,000t, 54.8% of Vietnam's total output. The strongest producers are

Fishery

The Mekong Delta is also Vietnam's most important fishing region. It has almost half of Vietnam's capacity of offshore fishing vessels (mostly in Kien Gian with almost 1/4, Bến Tre, Cà Mau, Tiền Giang, Bạc Liêu). Fishery output was at 3.168 million tons (58.3% of Vietnam) and has experienced rapid growth from 1.84mt in 2005.[29] All of Vietnam's largest fishery producers with over 300kt of output are in the Mekong Delta: Kiên Giang, Cà Mau, Đồng Tháp, An Giang, and Bến Tre.[29]

Despite the region's large offshore fishing fleet, 2/3 (2.13 million tonnes out of Vietnam's total of 2.93) of fishery output actually comes from aquaculture.[29]

December 2015, aquaculture production was estimated at 357 thousand tons, up 11% compared to the same period last year, bringing the total aquaculture production 3516 thousand tons in 2015, up 3.0% compared to the same period. Although aquaculture production has increased overall, aquaculture still faces many difficulties coming from export markets.

Industry and FDI

The Mekong Delta is not strongly industrialized, but is still the third out of seven regions in terms of industrial

Cà Mau Province is home to a large industrial zone including power plants and a fertiliser factory.[41]

Accumulated foreign direct investment in the Mekong Delta until 2011 was $10.257bn.[29] It has been highly concentrated in a few provinces, led by Long An and Kiên Giang with over $3bn each, Tiền Giang and Cần Thơ (around 850m), Cà Mau (780m) and Hậu Giang (673m), while the other provinces have received less than 200m each.[29] In general, the performance of the region in attracting FDI is evaluated as unsatisfactory by local analysts and policymakers.[40] Companies from Ho Chi Minh City have also invested heavily in the region. Their investment from 2000 to June 2011 accounted for 199 trillion VND (almost $10bn).[42]

Infrastructure

The construction of the

Vĩnh Long Province and Cần Thơ city. The cost of construction is estimated to be 4.842 trillion Vietnamese đồng (approximately 342.6 million United States dollars), making it the most expensive bridge in Vietnam.[43]

Culture

Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the river, and many of the villages are often accessible by rivers and canals rather than by road.

The region is home to cải lương, a form of Kinh/Vietnamese folk opera. Cai Luong Singing appeared in Mekong Delta in the early 20th century. Cai Luong Singing is often performed to the accompaniment of guitar and zither. Cai Luong is a kind of play telling a story. This often includes two main parts: the dialogue part and the singing part to express their thoughts and emotions.[44]

Cuisine

The Mekong Delta cuisine relies heavily on fresh products which is abundant in the new land with heavy use of seafoods and unique ingredients of the region such as palm sugar, basa fish and wild herbs and flowers such as điên điển, so đũa, kèo nèo. The history of the region being a newly settled area reflects on its cuisine, with Ẩm thực khẩn hoang or Settlers cuisine means dishes are prepared fresh from wild and newly-caught ingredients. The cuisine is also influenced by Khmer, Cham and Chinese settlers. This differs itself from the cuisine of other regions of Vietnam.

Literature and movies

Nguyễn Ngọc Tư, an author from Cà Mau province, has written many popular books about life in the Mekong Delta such as:

  • Ngọn đèn không tắt (The Inextinguishable Light, 2000)
  • Ông ngoại (Grandpa, 2001)
  • Biển người mênh mông (The Ocean of People, 2003)
  • Giao thừa (New Year's Eve, 2003)
  • Nước chảy mây trôi (Flowing Waters, Flying Clouds, 2004)
  • Cánh đồng bất tận (The Endless Field, 2005)

The 2004 film The Buffalo Boy is set in Cà Mau province.

Some Vietnamese films on the topic of life in the Mekong Delta attract the attention of a large audience: Tình Mẫu Tử (Mother and child love, 2019), Phận làm dâu (Bride's fate, 2018), etc.

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ Statistical Handbook of Vietnam 2014 Archived July 6, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, General Statistics Office of Vietnam
  2. ^ Mekong Delta Archived September 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine on ARCBC (ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation) site
  3. ^ Brocheux, Pierre (1995). The Mekong Delta: Ecology, Economy, and Revolution, 1860-1960. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. p. 1.
  4. ^ Turner, Robert F. (1975). Vietnamese Communism: Its Origin and Development. Hoover Institution Press.
  5. ^ Ashley Fantz, "Mekong a 'treasure trove' of 1,000 newly discovered species Archived November 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine", CNN. December 16, 2008.
  6. .
  7. ^ Stark, M.; Sovath, B. (2001). "Recent research on emergent complexity in Cambodia's Mekong". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 21 (5): 85–98.
  8. ^ Golzio, Karl-Heinz (2004), Inscriptions of Campā based on the editions and translations of Abel Bergaigne, Étienne Aymonier, Louis Finot, Édouard Huber and other French scholars and of the work of R. C. Majumdar. Newly presented, with minor corrections of texts and translations, together with calculations of given dates, Shaker Verlag, pp. 199–200
  9. ^ Griffiths, Arlo; Lepoutre, Amandine; Southworth, William A.; Phần, Thành (2012), The inscriptions of Campā at the Museum of Cham sculpture in Đà Nẵng / Văn khắc Chămpa tại bảo tàng điêu khắc Chăm – Đà Nẵng, Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House (published in collaboration with EFEO and the Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies, Hồ Chí Minh City)
  10. Korean University of Foreign Studies, Seoul
    , 2010, p.22
  11. ^ , 2010, p.23
  12. , 2010, p.24
  13. ^ , 2010, p.25
  14. .
  15. ^ Leulliot, Nowfel. "Dinassaut : Riverine warfare in Indochina, 1945–1954".
  16. ^ "Apocalypse Not – The Evacuation from Can Tho, Vietnam — April 1975". Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.
  17. ^ "'Day of Anguish' Still Grips Those Who Fled : Surrender: Fifteen years ago today, the fall of Saigon irrevocably changed a multitude of lives forever". Los Angeles Times. April 30, 1990.
  18. ISBN 9781315698809.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  19. ^ "Holdouts". War Never Dies. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  20. ^ "viajes a Vietnam". rutasvietnam.viajes - ES (in European Spanish).
  21. ^ "Physical and Geographical Features". Mekong River Awareness Kit. Convention on Biological Diversity. Archived from the original on August 8, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  22. .
  23. .
  24. .
  25. .
  26. .
  27. .
  28. .
  29. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n General Statistics Office (2012): Statistical Yearbook of Vietnam 2011. Statistical Publishing House, Hanoi
  30. .
  31. .
  32. ^ "Report: Flooded Future: Global vulnerability to sea level rise worse than previously understood". climatecentral.org. October 29, 2019. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  33. ^ "Mekong Delta: more flood and drought Archived November 2, 2022, at the Wayback Machine". VietnamNet Bridge. March 19, 2009.
  34. ^ van Halsema, G. (2019). "Breaching dykes in the Mekong Delta". Wageningen World. 1: 34–39.
  35. ^ "Xây dựng rừng phòng hộ để thích ứng với biến đổi khí hậu". Saigon Times. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  36. .
  37. ^ .
  38. ^ Severin Peters, Christian Henckes (March 18, 2017). "Saving the Mekong Delta". D+C, development and cooperation. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  39. ^ Lu, Denise; Flavelle, Christopher (October 29, 2019). "Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows". The New York Times. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  40. ^ a b "Nâng nội lực, hút vốn FDI vào ĐBSCL". Saigon Times. December 7, 2012. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  41. ^ "Gas, fertiliser industrial zone opens in Ca Mau". Viet Nam News. October 27, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  42. ^ "TPHCM đã đầu tư vào ĐBSCL gần 199.000 tỉ đồng". Saigon Times. July 25, 2011. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  43. ^ "SE Asia's longest cable-stayed bridge underway in Can Tho". September 28, 2004. Archived from the original on September 1, 2007. Retrieved September 28, 2007.
  44. ^ "Cai Luong - The Traditional Music Of The Mekong Delta". Retrieved October 2, 2019.

Further reading

External links

Climate change