The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) scheduled the US$8-milion project enabling the Mekong Delta provinces to annually forecast and fight against flood, to be complete by mid 2008.

View of floating houses in the Mekong Delta (Photo: Thuy Hang)

The Remote Sensing Center (under the MNRE) is now using cutting-edge technologies to establish a database of basic hydro - topographic information to help with flood control and socio - economic development of the Mekong Delta, said Professor Le Minh, director of the center.

According to the government’s figure, the loss caused by flood damage in the Mekong Delta’s provinces is up to US $31 million per year. Once operational, the project aims to reduce damage caused by 30 percent, equaling US $6 million per year.

At the outset, the project was scheduled for its debut by the end of this year but only three quarters of the project is currently completed. 

Setting up a huge database required experts to be very careful in ensuring that the data they collected was very accurate, Professor Minh said concerning the delay.

Recent bad weather has partly hindered the project’s progress. “We have to take pictures of the entire area on a scale of 1:5,000 by satellite but the picture quality was bad due to rain and clouds,” added Mr. Nguyen Van Sinh, another official of the Remote Sensing Center.

According to Mr. Sinh, the database of some provinces including Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Dong Thap, Tien Giang, Long An and Ben Tre has basically been completed and can already print out flood forecast.