Ca Mau Province, southern Vietnam, will begin work on a beach protection and anti-erosion project with a price tag of nearly 32 million euros (US$35.5 million) backed by local budget and two European agencies.

Relevant units are working to commence the construction of a sea dyke and wave barriers in critical areas, Phan Hoang Vu, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday.

This project, which is of great importance to this southernmost province where coastal erosion has reached alarming levels and other natural disasters have taken a heavy toll, is part of an agreement signed between the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the French Development Agency (AFD) on August 22.

Of the total investment, the European Union will provide a non-refundable grant of 3.76 million euros ($4.1 million), the AFD will offer more than 19 million euros ($21.1 million) in loans, and the rest will come from the provincial budget.

The project will be executed between 2024 and 2028, including the construction of a 19km-long western sea dyke which will form a coastal route linking Cai Doi Vam Town with the Nam canal, boosting local socio-economic and tourism growth.

Wave barriers measuring some 11 kilometers long will also be built in erosion-hit areas and those with little to no protective forests left, with an aim at reducing the impact of waves on dykes and protecting existing forests.

This project will also restore 2,000 hectares of mangrove forests along the coast and river mouths, enhance the safety of the sea dyke system to safeguard 15,000 hectares of inland areas across Phu Tan and Tran Van Thoi Districts.

Many parts of a western sea dye system in Ca Mau Province, southern Vietnam are extremely vulnerable to wave impacts. Photo: Thanh Huyen / Tuoi Tre

An integrated coastal management strategy will be developed in this project.

Besides, local inhabitants of five coastal communes in these districts will receive support in diversifying income sources and reducing reliance on nearshore fishing.

The project is expected to make considerable contributions to the protection and restoration of the coastal mangrove ecosystem, fishery resource conservation, and environmental protection.

Bounded by the sea on three sides, Ca Mau has a coastline of more than 254 kilometers, but over 100 kilometers of coastal areas have been ravaged by erosion.

Over the past decade, coastal erosion has eaten away approximately 5,250 hectares of land and protective forests in the province.

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