In the small village of Tien Duc perched on Vietnam’s south-central coast, over 300 homes have been swallowed by rising seas.
The rushing waters have crept further and further inland over the past six years, reports Thanh Nien, threatening the remaining residents, many of whom are too poor to move. As the waves come ever closer, another 100 homes are at risk of being washed away by the sea.
This year has been particularly difficult for southern Vietnam. In the Mekong Delta, the worst drought in nearly a century sent climate refugees to Saigon and beyond in search of work, while residents of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces face the desertification of their farmlands in addition to rising sea levels, according to VietnamNet. Taken together, the drought and saline intrusion which have plagued both regions amounts to Vietnam’s most expensive weather-related disaster in history, robbing 2 million people of access to clean water and putting 1.75 million out of work.
Though local authorities are building a concrete embankment to help quell the unruly waves in Binh Thuan, and locals have taken to constructing their own sandbag levees along the shore, the south-central coast’s rising seas show no sign of stopping.
A village road, once 50 meters from the sea, is now submerged under water.
Seventy-year-old Nguyen Hoang Nam lost his home to Binh Thuan's rising sea levels.
Local resident Nguyen Van Hung's house was one of the 300 structures swallowed by the sea. He now lives in a small, temporary house with his young family.
Villa owner Nguyen Thanh Liem has spent billions of dong constructing an embankment to protect his house.
Local residents pile sandbags along the coast to prevent rising seas from reaching their homes.
Local authorities are currently building an embankment to prevent further damage to Binh Thuan's seaside villages.
[Photos via Tuoi Tre]
