Vietnam: A Struggle against Climate-Change Drought

Vietnam is a rapidly developing country that is challenged in some regions by a wide income inequality and high incidents of rural poverty. A large proportion of the population live in the rural areas where water quality and water access are often inadequate. Incidents of disease and health complications are consistently higher in the rural areas compared to the urban settings in developing countries. There is evidence of growing pollution in the coastal, ground, and surface waters of Vietnam. Downstream sections of many rivers provide evidence of poor water quality. Pollution and sewage are contaminating many freshwater sources. From 2009 to 2013, six million cases of waterborne diseases were registered by health authorities for a combined cost of 400 billion VND. Malaria, typhoid, dysentery, and cholera pose consistent health threats to the population. The country is divided into 64 provinces with a total area of 331,052 square kilometers. Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam. Climate change will clearly have an impact in terms of flooding because 70 percent of the country rests at 500 meters above sea level or less. Experts have widely predicted that flooding will be a major effect of climate change and lowland nations such as Vietnam are particularly vulnerable to the range of negative development implications that will occur.