Building a comprehensive solution to prevent subsidence, landslides, flooding, drought, and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta

On the afternoon of December 5, at the Government Headquarters, Comrade Pham Minh Chinh, Politburo member, Secretary of the Government Party Committee, Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Government Party Committee Standing Committee and the Government Standing Committee to give opinions on the Project on preventing and combating subsidence, landslides, flooding, drought, and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered a concluding speech at the meeting. (Photo: TRAN HAI)

The meeting also gave opinions on the draft Politburo Report on the results of handling some outstanding issues (the Ho Chi Minh City flood control project and other projects related to environmental protection and climate change).

Also attending were members of the Politburo, Secretariat, Central Party Committee, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Secretary of the Government Party Committee, and leaders of ministries, branches, and agencies under the Government.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the meeting. (Photo: TRAN HAI)

At the meeting on the Project to prevent and combat subsidence, landslides, inundation, drought, and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, delegates focused on discussing the context, situation; limitations, challenges, and causes; viewpoints, goals, tasks, and solutions in the draft submission and draft Conclusion of the Politburo. According to the Working Program of the Politburo and the Secretariat in 2025, the Government Party Committee assigned the Party Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to preside over and coordinate with research agencies to develop a Project to prevent and combat subsidence, landslides, inundation, drought, and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta.

The project is built in close accordance with the spirit of Resolution No. 13-NQ/TW dated April 2, 2022 of the Politburo on socio-economic development orientations, ensuring national defense and security in the Mekong Delta region to 2030, with a vision to 2045; Mekong Delta Regional Planning, Resolution No. 120/NQ-CP dated November 17, 2017 of the Government on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in response to climate change; and directions of Government leaders.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha speaks at the meeting. (Photo: TRAN HAI)

After listening to the reports, opinions and concluding remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh basically agreed with the content of the report and proposals of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment; requested to study and fully absorb the opinions at the meeting to urgently complete the dossier and documents to submit to the Politburo according to regulations, ensuring progress and quality. According to the Prime Minister, the Mekong Delta is the most fertile delta in our country, with a rich and unique culture, great development potential, especially in agriculture, but is facing many very big problems such as land subsidence, riverbank and coastal erosion, flooding, drought, and saltwater intrusion. These problems are interrelated and affect each other and are all related to water resources, solutions to one problem can affect another.

This is a very important issue, related to the livelihoods and lives of people in the Mekong Delta, which accounts for 12.8% of the country's area, nearly 18% of the country's population, contributes 95% of rice exports, 60% of seafood, and 65% of fruit exports of the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long speaks at the meeting. (Photo: TRAN HAI)

Emphasizing the need to give the Mekong Delta a worthy position in leadership, direction, investment of resources, protection, effective and sustainable exploitation of the Mekong Delta, the Party Secretary and Prime Minister pointed out that the thinking, methodology, and guiding ideology throughout the construction of the Project must have "natural" solutions, flexible and effective adaptation to climate change in the Mekong Delta; have more comprehensive, holistic and fundamental solutions to the problems of land subsidence, riverbank and coastal erosion, flooding, drought, saltwater intrusion, and sustainable development of the Mekong Delta.

Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung speaks at the meeting. (Photo: TRAN HAI)

The Prime Minister noted the need to clearly analyze the situation and causes; clarify the political, legal and practical bases; and the main contents of viewpoints, goals, tasks and solutions to prevent subsidence, landslides, flooding, drought and saltwater intrusion, with a specific implementation deadline.

In particular, the Prime Minister requested to review, develop, amend and supplement mechanisms and policies to have resources to carry out the above tasks and solutions, especially mobilizing the participation of people, businesses, and non-budgetary resources to implement projects in the spirit of harmonizing interests between the State, people and businesses, such as public-private partnership, BT, BOT, loans..., in which mobilizing non-state resources accounts for at least 35%; building a specific project list with specific addresses, priority order, resource allocation, master planning and implementation, then doing each task properly and completing each task.

Emphasizing the spirit of having clear people, clear work, clear time, clear responsibility, clear authority, clear products, clear roadmap, clear steps, the Prime Minister noted a number of additional solutions such as implementing programs and projects on science and technology, especially expanding new technological solutions that have been effectively applied in practice; non-structural solutions such as re-arranging residents, planting and protecting mangrove forests, coastal protection forests, adjusting and converting production to limit the lowering of water levels on canals and groundwater in freshwater areas, thereby overcoming subsidence; researching to have a roadmap to reduce groundwater exploitation...

Regarding construction solutions, it is necessary to propose specific programs and projects; projects need to be reviewed and carefully researched to ensure scientific and feasible, avoiding the construction of projects serving one purpose that negatively impacts another purpose, projects of one industry that impact and affect another industry, and projects of one locality that affect another locality. The Prime Minister also noted the need to promote the development of inland waterway transport in the Mekong Delta to exploit this advantage of the region.

According to the Prime Minister, the issues facing the Mekong Delta are all very big issues that need to be prioritized and require the participation of ministries and branches, especially directly related ministries such as the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, research agencies, experts, scientists, Party committees and authorities of localities in the Mekong Delta, and promoting international cooperation.

The Prime Minister assigned Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha to continue directing the Party Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to complete the project, the Ministry of Finance to give opinions and review, balance and ensure financial resources, state budget resources and methods of resource mobilization to implement the goals, tasks and solutions of the project after the Conclusion of the Politburo is available.

* Regarding the content of handling some outstanding issues (Ho Chi Minh City's flood control project and other projects related to environmental protection and climate change), the reports and opinions at the recent assessment meeting and the handling of long-standing and stuck projects in general have been focused on and directed by the Politburo and the Government to be resolute in order to put the projects into operation, free up resources, and prevent waste.

The Politburo has issued Conclusion No. 77, the National Assembly has issued Resolution No. 170/2024/QH15 on specific mechanisms and policies to remove difficulties and obstacles for projects; recently, the Politburo continued to direct the Government Party Committee to coordinate with the National Assembly Party Committee to add to the agenda of the 10th session of the National Assembly to consider and approve the Resolution expanding the scope of application of Resolution No. 170.

The Ho Chi Minh City flood control project is also a long-standing project. The Government has issued Resolution No. 212/NQ-CP dated July 21, 2025 to remove difficulties and obstacles. According to the Party Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ho Chi Minh City flood control project is currently being actively implemented, without major obstacles that need to be reported to the Politburo for guidance.

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has also reviewed and synthesized other projects related to the environment and climate change. On the other hand, in Decision No. 2530/QD-TTg dated November 19, 2025, the Prime Minister approved the National Action Plan on pollution remediation and air quality management for the period 2026-2030, with a vision to 2045.

Regarding this content, the Party Secretary and Prime Minister highly appreciated and basically agreed with the content of the draft Politburo Report prepared by the Party Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and proposed to receive comments at the meeting and continue to fully update information to complete the content of the Report on the Ho Chi Minh City flood prevention project. Along with that, the Prime Minister said that it is necessary to have a general direction nationwide and research and implement projects to overcome pollution and manage air quality in key localities, first of all in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; review, if there are mechanisms and policies, then implement them according to authority, if there are other mechanisms and policies that are not yet prescribed by law, then propose to the Politburo.

Ha Thanh Giang

Source: https://nhandan.vn/xay-dung-giai-phap-tong-the-phong-chong-sut-lun-sat-lo-ngap-ung-han-han-xam-nhap-man-vung-dong-bang-song-cuu-long-post928306.html