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Deltas Disappearing, Endangering Half a Million Lives

mekong delta vietnam

Eight million people live on six major river deltas across the world. They are awaiting a complete lush with rising sea levels, sinking land and storms. Hurricane Katrina’s ravaging New Orleans is enough of an example, to show just how dangerous living in a flood-prone delta can be!

Katrina alone left more than half a million people displaced, but for some researchers this came as no surprise as they know well the precariousness of living at the deltas. They also think that it is by 2050, millions more living in low-lying river deltas will be equally vulnerable to rising sea levels, sinking land and storms.

If not more devastating, five other deltas could face similar disasters — the Bengal delta in Bangladesh, the Yangtze delta in China, the Mekong delta in Vietnam, the Nile delta in Egypt and the Godavari delta in India. Jason Ericson of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, now at the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation in Richmond, and his colleagues identified them.

Via: New Scientist

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