HANOI -
Vietnam's energy authorities are fixing
a leak at the biggest dam in the country's central region, which could, if the
problem were to get out of control, endanger thousands of people downstream,
officials and state media reported on Wednesday.
Water
has been leaking at a speed of 30 litres per second at the dam at the Song
Tranh 2 hydro power plant in Quang Nam province but it "does not affect
the safety of the project", state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) said
in a statement.
EVN,
which owns the $249-million 190-megawatt plant, said water was flowing out
through "thermal gaps", which were designed to prevent heat affecting
concrete blocks used to build the dam, but not through cracks as state media
reported.
EVN
says the dam is the largest in the central region, capable of holding 730
million cubic metres. That is equivalent to the water volume of 292,000
Olympic-size swimming pools.
Song
Tranh 2 is the second power plant named after the Tranh river that feeds the
reservoirs.
The
plant, with two generators operational since January 2011, is about 50 km (30
miles) southwest of Tam Ky city, the capital of Quang Nam.
The
province is home to two UNESCO-recognised World Heritage sites, the My Son
temple complex and Hoi An ancient town.
Pictures
posted online by state-run newspapers show strong water current flowing out of
the side of the dam.
Such
flows could widen the cracks and cause the dam to burst in a worst-case
scenario, professor Pham Hong Giang, head of the Vietnam National Committee on
Large Dams and Water Resources Development told state-run Vanguard newspaper in
an interview.
More
than 20,000 people now live in "vulnerable areas downstream" at Quang
Nam's Bac Tra My district, and officials found a serious leak, the Vietnam News
daily quoted Bac Tra My chairman Dang Phong on Wednesday as saying.
But the
situation at the dam was still normal, said Tran Van Hai, head of the EVN-run
Hydropower Projects Management Board 3 which controls the power plant.
"We
are continuing work to minimise (the leak)," he said by telephone from the
site.
Hai
also told the online newspaper VNExpress that workers had drilled down deep to
inject rubber chemicals and special mortar to stop the water flow.
The
Dung Quat refinery in Quang Ngai province, to the south of Quang Nam, would not
be affected as it is outside the downstream area of the Tranh river, an
official at the company operating the refinery said.
Reuters
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