VietNamNet Bridge – Tens of thousands of hectares of rice and
crops in provinces in central Vietnam are in need of water now.
Mr. Huynh Van Thang, deputy
director of the Da nang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said
that around 6,000 hectares of crops are threatened by drought.
In Thua Thien – Hue province,
half of the rice area lacks water.
In Phu Yen province, Dong Cam,
the largest irrigation work in the province, which supplies water for 15,000
hectares of rice, is seriously dry.
At present, thousands of
households in the downstream regions of Thu Bon, Vu Gia rivers in Quang Nam and
Ba River in Phu Yen are thirsty for water.
Besides prolonged dry and
sunny weather, drought is caused by hydro-power plants, which store water for
power generation.
Localities which do not have
hydro-power plants on the upstream arrears, for example southern Quang Nam,
southern Quang Ngai and northern Binh Dinh, do not lack water. This is the
clear evidence for impacts of hydro-power plants.
Since Dak Min 4 hydro-power
plant changed the flow of Vu Gia River, Da nang has lacked water during the dry
season. Da nang used to lodge complaints to the government, asking Dak Min 4 to
return water to Vu Gia River, at least 48cu.m per second but this plant only
released water back at the speed of 7cu.m/second.
This situation happens again
this year. “We cannot discharge water at 25cu.m/second speed because we will
lack water for power generation,” said an official of Dak Min 4.
If Dak Min 4 causes drought
and salt-water encroachment in northern Quang Nam and Danang City, in Phu Yen,
hydro-power plants on Ba River are the culprits of drought.
At this moment, most of plants
try to store water, neglecting Phu Yen authorities’ request and the Ministry of
Industry and Trade’s instruction. They argue that they lack water and they have
to operate under the “competitive power market” policy, which starts from July
2012. Competition is good but why they compete with farmers?
This has become a yearly
routine: storing water in dry and sunny weather and discharging in rainy and
flooding season.
A competitive power market
aims to ensure competition in power production and pricing, improve efficiency
and attract more funding for power generation. As the power generation market
becomes more developed, customers will have more opportunities to select power
providers. The market operates under the model of a cost-based pool in which
power producers have the right to offer power prices based on the market.
Deputy PM gets tough on dams
Hydropower projects that have
significant negative impacts on the environment should be rejected and existing
ones that violate regulations should have their licences revoked, says Deputy
Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.
These include projects that
need large areas of forest and/or agricultural land; affect large numbers of
residents and result in big resettlement plans; and affect water resources on
the lower sections of rivers on which the dams are built, he said in a
statement on the Government website.
Hai asked the Ministry of
Trade and Industry to review development plans for hydropower projects on each
river as well as small-scale ones planned by every locality nationwide.
The Ministry of Trade and
Industry should cooperate with provincial authorities to make developers (of
hydropower plants) to re-assess their designs, propose operational and
management measures to ensure safety of life and property in downstream areas
during flooding seasons, he said.
Hydropower projects currently
under construction must be inspected and violations in construction and quality
management and supervision must be strictly punished, Hai said.
The Ministry of Trade and
Industry must cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
to monitor compensation paid to residents affected by these projects so as to
ensure that they have better living standards in new residential areas.
Provincial authorities are
responsible for allocating land for reforestation to investors of hydropower
projects to replace forests destroyed to build dams. They are also required to
take measures to ensure that investors reforest an area equal to the forest
land allocated for their hydro-power projects, Hai said.
If the province does not have
enough land for afforestation, the authorities must ask the investors to pay
compensation money to the Forest Protection and Development fund as required by
law.
The People's Committees of
provinces and cities have to report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development the area of forest land allocated to hydro-power projects and also
the area of land reforested by the investors. The ministry will then send a
report to the Prime Minister on this issue.
Provincial and city
authorities should also check and assess the capacities of contractors for
small-scale hydropower projects.
Licences granted to investors
who do not possess the capability to carry out hydropower projects and those
who violate regulations on construction, investment and environment protection
must be revoked, Hai said.
Compiled by Na Son
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