Although prevention of drought in the dry season of 2019-2020 is considered successful, there are also certain losses. After six months of drought and severe saline intrusion, many areas of fruit trees began to lose their leaves and show signs of death.
The localities with the most fruit trees affected by drought and salinity are Tien Giang, Ben Tre, and Vinh Long. Since late 2019, gardeners here have been actively storing fresh water in canals and ponds. As a result, orchards have overcome the first three months of the dry season.
But from March onwards, the fresh water stored had ran out. The whole region has about 80,000 hectares of fruit trees affected by drought and salinity. Of which, 1,700 hectares were damaged by 70% or more.