ABSTRACT
A considerable proportion of the waterways are useable only by shallow-draught vessels for limited periods of the year, and would in France be classified as 'flottable' rather than as 'navigable'.
The waterways were the principal means of transport before the French occupation and even to-day, despite the development of roads and railways, they still play an important part in the economic life of the country. Water transport on a large scale, however, is restricted to the two delta regions of Tonkin and Cochin-China. In the interior, the Fleuve Rouge, the Mekong and many other streams, provide only limited navigational facilities, owing to the extreme variability of their regime and to the existence of rapids and waterfalls a short distance from the sea (Fig. 138).
