Mekong Delta Connects to the Future

Mekong Delta Connects to the Future

Mekong Delta is recognized as the “rice basket” of Vietnam because of its wet landscape, thus conducive for farming and other forms of agricultural livelihood. Although the people has been used to its floating community and boats as mode of transport, the construction of bridges is a huge, if not defining, help in catering to its continuing progress.

 

Mekong Delta is located at the Southern region of the country wherein countless rivers, streams and canals, all interconnected with each other, surround the area. Naturally, the people’s way of life adapts to their environment, with houses and markets floating on the water and the standard form of transportation are boats and ferries. But since the reunification of Vietnam 42 years ago, development became swift and steady, and Mekong Delta is one of the regions which enjoyed such improvement. Along with such progress came the building of a number of bridges which undoubtedly sped up and made business and life in general easier.  

 

Nine bridges have been constructed in the region, namely My Thuan, Can Tho, Rach Mieu, Ham Luong, Nam Can, Co Chien, My Loi, Vam Cong, and Cao Lanh. Since then, the people’s lives at Mekong Delta have changed greatly, for the better. Some of those who used to offer boat rides to tourists as their means of income have now shifted to selling, such as dried fish, dried shrimps and freshwater crabs. This provided a more stable income for the residents compared to their previous boat ride business which was only dependent on tourist arrivals.

 

Although the new bridges slowed down boat trade significantly, tourism has been boosted in general, creating more opportunities such as interconnecting other provinces and providing more products and services. The transportation of rice, vegetables and fruits has become much faster and easier. What used to be a two-day travel on the water has now been cut off to several hours, ensuring freshness of the goods, more number of trips and definitely more revenue. It has also opened up the perspective of the local people seeing the other, more urbanized living on the other side of the bridges, encouraging them to cross over and seek a better life.   

 

Other infrastructure projects are expected to come at Mekong Delta, painting a bright future for the once traditional, if not slow, region.