MeKong Delta, pollution/erosion

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Land in the MeKong Delta sinks...
as ground water is extracted for drinking, there are around one million wells in the area and sand is also extracted for industry. The flat landscape is within 2 meters of sea level and every year sea level rises 0.3cm. To compound the problem, barges carry sand or stone from the river bottom and put loads on very overloaded, really low barges. Stone works finish by midnight but many contracts are broken with ignorance of the rules and the sand is literally stolen from the river past the shut down hour. A temporary solution is to plant palms in the run off water canals/tributaries to protect the river bank from erosion.

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