A row of impenetrable watchtowers tasked with inflicting ruthless law and order upon a dystopian borderland seething with marauders, bandits and brigands? No. Sluice gates.
From a distance, the enormous, brutalist-esque cement towers rising along a bridge spanning the imposing Cái Lớn River in Kiên Giang Province resemble structures in a sci-fi novel, but they are in fact part of Vietnam’s largest irrigation project in the Mekong Delta.
Riding through rural Kiên Giang Province, one passes familiar stretches of rice fields dotted with graves and herons; the corrugated roofs of slipshod homes peer over canals and rivers traversed by boats filled with fruits. The towns are festooned with signs of development: cell phone shops, tạp hóa selling laundry soap and instant noodles, car dealerships and signboards for fertilizer brands. Street vendors grill sweet potatoes. Hammocks hang in cafes. Muddy shoes rest at the entrances to austere classrooms. This is not the backdrop one expects for one of Vietnam’s most stylish infrastructure projects.
Beginning construction in 2019 and inaugurated in 2022, the VND3.3 trillion (US$142.17 million) Cái Lớn-Cái Bé dual sluice project consists of enormous, sliding gates on the Cái Lớn River and the Cái Bé River. Coinciding with conventional views of delta land use, the project aims to regulate irrigation and control water salinity for more than 384,000 hectares of agricultural land and assist in regional responses to natural disasters and climate change. Critics, of which there are many, deride it as further damaging ecological balances and perpetuating unsustainable farming practices.
Photo via Dân Việt.
Albeit far from an expert on the matter, I suspect it is another example of our hubristic attempts to reign in yet another element of nature we do not understand, let alone have the power to harness. At best, it could briefly forestall the calamities our greed wroughts, and will likely do more harm than good. But I'm no scientist; I'm better at describing emotions.
Awe. I was filled with awe when standing beside the sluice towers. Impressive in scale and style, they are a testament to what people can design and build. The project also speaks to the size and diversity of Vietnam, as evidenced by the people I shared photos of it with. They were stunned by its appearance, shocked by its existence. Miền Tây contains many similarly splendid surprises. I could list more, but let the draconian sluice towers stand as singular evidence that the delta has plenty to discover if you’re willing to ramble aimlessly.
