Vietnam's Mekong Delta expects high floods in 2011, boost for rice

High floods on the Mekong river that runs from the Tibetan plateau through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam would bring fertile soil much needed for rice plants in the Mekong Delta.

The Delta produces more than half of Vietnam's rice output and but supplies 90 percent of the country's rice exports. The soil will support the winter-spring crop, with most of its output used for sales overseas.

Flood waters, which usually arrive in Vietnam in August and peak in late October, also bring fish, the livelihood of millions of people along the Mekong. In recent years, China's construction of dams for hydropower has reduced water flows.

Mekong waters in Laos and Cambodia are now higher than the average in recent years, which suggest "flood waters could reach the highest level in nine years", the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper quoted the Southern Hydro Meteorology Station data as showing.

Floods in the area where the Mekong river enters Vietnam are forecast to rise to as high as 4.5 metres (15 feet) above the sea level, it said. At such level houses -- often built with only one storey in the Mekong Delta -- can be submerged.

Between 2002 and 2009 the Delta had low flood waters while it had almost no floods in 2010, but Vietnam's paddy output last year rose 2.8 percent from the previous year to 39.99 million tonnes, and it exported a record 6.83 million tonnes of milled rice.

This year Vietnam projects rice exports at between 7.1 million and 7.4 million tonnes, as output would increase to more than 41 million tonnes of paddy, also a record high.

"Now waters are pouring in from upstream which is very good for the Mekong Delta," Deputy Director Nguyen Minh Giam of the weather station was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Low flooding can worsen salination, as sea waters travel far inland and stunt the growth of rice plants or even kill the crop. Vietnam has built a system of dykes in the Mekong Delta in recent years to prevent the intrusion of salted waters.

The La Nina weather phenomenon -- a cooling of the ocean surface off western South America which provoked heavy rains in Asia and the Pacific in 2010/2011 -- ended in May but it could revive this autumn, forecasters said.

Two storms in July brought much rain to the midstream and downstream areas of the Mekong, raising waters in Laos and Cambodia, and reservoirs of several hydro power plants in Vietnam also reported high water levels.

In India, monsoon rains were 14 percent above normal in the week to Aug. 10, improving sharply from 22 percent below average the week before, the weather office said on Thursday, boosting the outlook for summer crops such as cane, cotton and rice.

Copyright Reuters, 2011