Proposing ways to wash salt water in the Mekong Delta

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Find the cause

Identify the problems happening in the Mekong Delta, which are: drought (lack of fresh water) and salinity (salt water moving deep inland).

There are many reasons, but the biggest, appearing on the surface, is because the Mekong River has been blocked into 20 sections by 19 giant concrete dams for hydroelectric power and water storage upstream, causing the amount of water to flow.

There is no flood, causing the amount of silt to decrease, and there is not enough fresh water to push the salt water away, causing the salt water to penetrate deep inland.

The solutions that have been and are being implemented in Vietnam take a lot of effort such as building dikes to prevent salinity, dredging to clear the flow, establishing water reservoirs, shifting and changing crop structure… and cooperating.

Everyone knows that the fastest and simplest solution is to dismantle all the dams that have killed the Mekong River to create hydroelectric power in upstream countries.

New direction to rescue the Mekong Delta

In the framework of this article, I would like to offer a solution from the perspective of technological solutions to rescue the Mekong Delta from the problem caused by drought and salinity.

As analyzed above, the problem now becomes simpler, which is to prioritize solving the thirst for fresh water, not preventing salinity like we are doing now, which is inherently unnatural and highly dangerous.

So why is there a shortage of fresh water?

How to quench the thirst for soft drinks?

According to monitoring results, currently, in the Hau River area, salt water has encroached on Can Tho City;

Goals, solutions

According to national standards on domestic water, salinity must not exceed 250 mg/L (ie 0.25 ‰) for humans, domestic water factories can only take water with salinity not exceeding

Those two goals lead to two solution packages: a technological solution package to solve the problem of agricultural irrigation water and a second solution package to solve the scarcity of domestic water.

Package of solutions to reduce salinity for agriculture

1. Convert the function of existing saltwater prevention dams and sluice gates on rivers, canals, and canals into salinity washing sluices by installing combinations of salt washing equipment.

2. Design, build and install a network of salinity culverts in areas with salinity above 4 g/L.

3. Research, design and install salt washing equipment systems at large bridges on rivers and canals.

4. Install salt washing equipment at irrigation pumping stations throughout the area.

In this way, we will build a three-level salt washing system based on the classification of river systems: main river, level 1 tributary and level 2 tributary to reduce water salinity to less than 2 g.

Technology to reduce salinity of surface water

The salt washing device operates on the principle of ionization based on two energy fields that are built-in during device manufacturing, of which one energy field operates according to physical principles, the other energy field operates according to physical principles.

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