It is estimated that sea water intrudes at least 50m of the estuary each year, said Le Thanh Trieu, Chairman of the U Minh district’s People’s Committee, adding that a memorial to more than 1,000 local people died in a typhoon in 1997 is also on the verge of being knocked by waves.

To solve the situation, local authorities have mobilised all forces to build a temporary breakwater to prevent rising waves as well as prepared plans to evacuate people to safer areas when any large slide occurs, he said.

About 50km from Ca Mau city, Khanh Hoi is the second largest estuary in Vietnam. It is always put at risk of serious erosion due to the impacts of waves.

The State has annually earmarked a large sum of money for handling soil erosion through upgrading the dyke system.

Damage caused by soil erosion as a result of climate change and sea level rise in Ca Mau is forecast to be fourfold the current level by 2030.

The Government has approved five climate change resilience programmes for the province in 2013-2020 with a total cost of 5 trillion VND (238.1 million USD), 1.3 trillion VND of which will be spent on improving breakwaters.

However, the most effective measure to alter the situation is to grow submerged forests.