As a matter of fact, Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces are arid areas, water shortages often occur especially in recent years. Due to the effects of climate change and the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, rainy season comes later and ends earlier than normal so the drought and water shortages take place quite often.
According to a 2008 land inventory implementedby the Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, the land area is degrading and the desertification mainly occurs in the districts of Ninh Phuoc, Ninh Hai (Ninh Thuan province) and Tuy Phong, Bac Binh, Ham Thuan Bac (Binh Thuan province). The land degradation and its quality tends to deplete.
Desertification area in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan
| Binh Thuan: Land area: 783,255ha | ||
| Barren land | 255,492ha | account for 31.96% |
| Barren hills | 106,343ha | account for13.31% |
| Destructive land | 89,995ha | account for11.3% |
| Ninh Thuan: Land area: 336,000ha | ||
| Barren land | 114,900ha | account for33.5% |
| Destructive land | 81,021ha | account for23.6% |
| Extremely-destructive land | 15,632ha | account for4.6% |
Source: Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, 2008
2. The type of desertification in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces
Scientists have pointed out there are many types of land desertification but in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan, the common gifts desertification taking place in the following format:
Desertification area in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan
| N | Type of desertification | Binh Thuan (ha) | Ninh Thuan (ha) |
| 1 | Sand Desert | 56,740 | 9,103 |
| 2 | Stone desert | 9,355 | 21,468 |
| 3 | Salt desert: - Coastal - Mainland | 1,870 9,540 | 525 5,882 |
| 4 | Destructive land | 12,490 | 44,043 |
| Total: % to land area | 89,995 11.3% | 81,021 23.6% |
1. SandDesert :
Type of soil: sand dunes and coastal sandy land. The dry grasses and shrubs account for more than 40%. On the sand dunes, sandy beaches along the coast are mainly natural herb and grasses such as Tribulus terrestris, Opuntia dilleni, Canavalia maritima, Boerhaavia repens, Fimbristylis miliacea, Spinifex littoreus, Impomea pes-caprea…
2. Salt desert criteria
* Climate factor: aridity index is relatively high so that it is a favorable condition for salt water intrusion into the land. Saline groundwater increase in the dry season. Salinity occurs in all estuaries of the south-central coast. In rainy season, salinity intrudes only 1 or 2 km,but in the dry season, salinity penetrate deeply into inland from 5 to 7km.TDS is 3-30g/l in many places not being used for agricultural purposes. The whole area of Phan Rang – Thap Cham is under saline intrusion, 75% of the Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan plains are intruded by saline water, especially coastal areas like Ca Na, PhanRi.
* Land Criteria: Ninh Thuan has 105km of coastline and Binh Thuan has 192km of coastline. :
- High soil salinity (Mn): total soluble salts is more than 1% and EC is more than 4ms/cm.
- Medium soil salinity (M): total soluble salts range from 0.5 to 1.0%, EC
- Low soil salinity (Mi): total soluble salts is less than
3. Desert soils and stone desert
a. Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan are located on the sandy shores. On the one hand, they are affected by frequent storms, on the other hand, the rainfall is very low. That makes the soil on the surface is very thin (less than 10cm ), the lateritic soil accounts for over 60% and surface erosion has occurred seriously.
b. Plants in this area are mostly dry vegetation such as grasses, small trees and drought-tolerant shrubs. On the surface, there are mostly arid thin layer soil, so that almost barren vegetation grow in these areas.
In addition, the Central region has rocks with steep slopes so it is very difficult to plant in these mountains. Grass and small trees scatter in these mountains but the coverage is less than 20%.
Especially, dry season in the two provinces prolong more than two months every year.The rainfall is very low at 700-1000mm and is influenced frequently by climate change.Aridity index is more than 2 so that the desertification is inevitable.
Lê Mai
Đăng ký: VietNam News