VietNamNet Bridge – As of last week 33 out of the 66 hydropower
dams subject to periodic inspections had not been checked, including seven
large-scale dams.
According to a report that the
Ministry of Industry and Trade submitted to the National Assembly on Monday, 22
out of the 66 hydropower dams have been checked and found to be safe, while
seven others are under inspection.
However, 33 hydropower dams have
yet to be examined as required, including seven dams with capacity of over 30MW
each and 30 dams with capacity of less than 30MW each.
This delay is ascribed to the
lack of capable inspectors. Only 19 out of the 82 units registered for
inspection are qualified by the Ministry of Construction.
The average time for checking a
dam is 5-6 months after the inspection contract is signed.
Besides, sanctions against
violations of dam safety are insufficient.
Moreover, the cost of dam
inspections is high. For example, the inspection of Tuyen Quang dam costs
VND1.87 billion, Srepok 3 dam VND1.5 billion and Buon Tua Srah dam VND1.6
billion. Therefore, dam owners hesitate to carry out checks.
The trade ministry is compiling
additional regulations on administrative sanctions for dam safety management,
which will be submitted to the Government in January.
Regarding the case of Song Tranh
2 hydropower dam, the report says it is not the time to examine the dam yet.
Nevertheless, after handling
water leaks and tremors, the State Appraisal and Acceptance Council hired Swiss
firm AF-Colenco to evaluate the dam. The independent advisor stated that the
dam remained safe and stable.
By the end of August, local
governments had removed 107 hydropower projects with total registered capacity
of 605.2MW from their planning and stopped considering adding to the planning
156 locations with potential capacity of around 335MW.
As such, there are now 1,114
hydropower projects left with total capacity of over 25,300MW. Among those,
1,004 projects are of small and medium scale.
The trade ministry said the
projects yet to get underway would be further inspected in order to eliminate
the projects with low efficiency or negative impacts on the environment and
society.
The projects with capacity of
less than 3MW each will be temporarily halted until the end of 2015. Thus, the
number of hydropower projects will continue to fall in the future.
VietNamNet/SGT
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