In the early days of April, many trucks carrying free clean water from Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbor Long An Province rushed to Tan Phuoc Commune in Go Cong Dong District, Tien Giang Province, to supply water to local people.
The photo above was taken at 7 p.m. on Wednesday when hundreds of people prepared plastic cans and took turns filling them with clean water.
Le Son, director of a tourism company in Ho Chi Minh City, said he had rented a truck to transport 40 cubic meters of water to the commune.
"It's now the beginning of the dry season and the people are suffering too much, so I allocated some money to rent a truck to deliver water to help them," Son said, mentioning that his was the third truck in a week to provide free water to local people.
Many people collecting the water aid said they work during the day, so they only have time to obtain water at night. The Mekong Delta has been experiencing peak-level drought and salinity, with about 30,000 families lacking water for domestic use.
Tien Giang’s coastal districts, such as Go Cong Dong and Tan Phu Dong, are now experiencing saline intrusion. The province has opened more than 60 public water taps, but they have done little to meet demand.
Many people use carts to so they can carry more water. Le Van Hua, who is pumping water into a can, said he needs to transport two cartloads of water to meet his family's daily needs.
Hua's family is one of the thousands in Tan Phuoc Commune facing a lack of clean water. Their neighborhood does not have tap water, and people have to drink rainwater and use canal water for daily activities. But with no rain for many months now, water storage tanks have run dry, and the canals have also dried up, making life exceedingly difficult in the region.
As it was late at night, so Huynh Van Nghia had to use an additional lamp hung on his head to collect and transport water.
Tien Giang Province has planned to open about 50 more water taps for people in coastal districts. While waiting for tap water, local people will keep relying on mobile storage tanks provided by benefactors.
"Without this charity water, we wouldn't know what to do," said Pham Van Be (L).
Over the past 10 years, the Mekong Delta has experienced two major drought and salinity events in 2016 and 2019.
The more historic 2016 disaster caused 160,000 hectares of land to be salinized, resulting in over VND5.5 trillion (US$220 million) in damages. Ten provinces in the region had to officially declare the problem a natural disaster. Four years later, a drought lasting more than six months forced six provinces to declare states of emergency. Over 43,000 hectares of rice were damaged, and 80,000 households lacked water.
That year, the government had to extract VND530 billion from the state budget to support eight provinces struggling to cope with the water shortage situation.
When the clock had almost turned 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Doan Tien Dung, 39, arrived home with the water.
"We have three families living together so I had to collect 20-30 cans to have enough water," said the 39-year-old man.
Tran Tuan pumps water into cans for a local man.
He resides in Long An Province, which borders Tien Giang, and drives 50 km to bring freshwater to people in need.
Tuan said he owns a truck and has asked his friends to contribute to deliver free water.
"We can deliver 7-8 cubic meter of freshwater per day. Any drop we can save can do some good for the people here," he said.
Nguyen Thi Noi, 69, said her family has been lacking domestic water for over 10 days and has to transport cans of water home from water stations. "My family needs 7-8 cans of water a day," she said.
Unable to carry large cans, Vo Thi Hai, 74, uses a small bucket to carry water back and forth from a water station a few hundred meters from her home.
"Here, everyone has to go fetch water, despite of their age,” she said.
Residents utilize any and all household containers – including drums and jars – to store domestic water.
Pham Van Doi, 74, said his family must use the water sparingly.
Not only in Tien Giang, but drought and salinity are also affecting the lives of people in Ca Mau, Ben Tre, and Soc Trang provinces.
The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has assessed that this year's saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta will be higher than a recent multi-year average, but not as severe as in 2015-2016 and 2019-2020. The salinity intrusion peaks are expected to occur on April 8-13, April 22-28 and May 7-11.
A water tank delivers water to people in Go Cong Dong District, Tien Giang Province, April 3, 2024. Video by Thanh Tung
