Salty water and solutions

Saline water is a difficult problem in the Mekong Delta in particular and coastal areas in general. In recent years, the salty season has come early and lasted a long time, greatly affecting people’s lives and production.

Cause of salty water

The groundwater level has decreased due to over-exploitation of groundwater and salt water intrusion.
Drilling wells everywhere, wells are the source for salt water to go deep into the ground.
Large rivers are blocked at the upstream with no fresh water flowing in, the downstream areas are encroached by salt water.

Consequences of salty watern

Water cannot be used for daily activities or cooking.
Watering the plants will cause the leaves to wilt and die, affecting rice, fruit trees, and crops
Disrupts the structure and natural properties of the soil
Causes skin diseases

Solutions to deal with salty water:

Build large freshwater reservoirs to store water

This is quite an expensive measure as a large amount of money must be spent to build freshwater reservoirs, so it requires large capital from the state or non-governmental organizations.
Accordingly, fresh water will be stored until the saline water season will be used.
Using saline water mixed with stored fresh water to create a quantity of non-saline water to meet people’s needs.
Households can store water in jars and tanks until the salty season has a reserve source for use when needed.

2. Application of saline agricultural technology

Accordingly, salinity-affected lands will be sampled, analyzed, researched and evaluated
Research into salt-tolerant crop varieties, combined with appropriate use of water and fertilizer and farming techniques

If you want to learn about saline agriculture, you can refer to it here.

3. Apply saltwater treatment technology to create fresh water for use.

Today there are many technologies to treat saline water into fresh water, from the simplest measures to modern technology:

Distillation. Easy to do but not very effective when the demand is large scale.
- With household size, people can follow the model below,
- The glass panels will be placed at an angle, above the saline water tank, under the sunlight.
- Water evaporating from below will stagnate and flow down the slope to the freshwater ditch

Ion exchange. Using acids and bases to wash and regenerate plastic beads is difficult to control and operate, requiring a technical team with specialized knowledge to operate and control.
RO. Produces good water quality, highest efficiency and can be applied on a large or small scale depending on the production needs of customers.

-> If you want to learn about and install a RO system to treat saline water, please refer to this Here