Quantity and Quality of Agricultural Water Use in the Red River Delta of Vietnam

Abstract

Recently, crops have been converting from rice monoculture to combination cash crops and rice in the Red River Delta, necessitating rational estimation of agricultural water demand. Here, annual and monthly water demands for agriculture and for domestic and industrial use in the RRD were estimated by using the Cropwat Model, As a result, these annual demands, for instance in 1999, were 6,761 and 761 Mm³/year, respectively. Though the highest monthly water demand for agriculture occurs in January, water supply potential then still meets this demand. If the crop conversion were further developed, the water demand in agriculture would be reduced. On the other hand, industrial effluents from obsolete wastewater treatment facilities in urban areas, and overusing chemical fertilizers and pesticides in rural areas have been degrading water quality, leading to less opportunity to access clean water in agriculture, thus, some water environment protection management is becoming necessary.