Hydropower projects should be banned from interfering with natural water currents, said Chairman of National Assembly’s Committee for Ethnic Group Affairs, Ksor Phuoc.
Hydropower plants cause floods in the central region
Phuoc proposed adding regulations to this effect to the amended Law of Water Resources at the NA Standing Committee meeting held on October 4.
According to Phuoc, the recent construction of several hydropower plants in the central province of Binh Dinh has changed the currents in Ba River, which has resulted in an insufficient water supply for agriculture in the neighbouring province of Gia Lai. This may may also affect Phu Yen Province in the future and threaten agriculture there.
Truong Thi Mai, Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs recommended strengthening the laws on the construction, operation and discharge of hydropower plants.
“Hydropower plants discharge huge volumes of water, causing serious floods in the central region. This issue has been addressed at several recent NA’s meetings. The region has hundreds of small hydropower plants, but there is a lack of cooperation between them due to the lax management of local governments,” she noted.
She added that the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is scrutinising smaller hydropowerplants in an attempt to increase their coordination.
According to a Government report, hydropower contributes about 40% to the national power supply. But many investors in these projects did not do proper assessment on the environmental impacts that dams and plants would make downstream.
In addition to causing floods in rainy reasons, the lack of a unified hydropower development plan has prevented several hydropower projects from maintaining sufficient water currents and has also caused serious water shortages downstream during dry seasons.
Phan Xuan Dung, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, called for a serious assessment on the risk of water exhaustion and the threat of dead rivers due to hydropower development.
Dung shared that water resources in the Central Highlands region have fallen sharply in recent years. In past times people could find water by drilling between 15 and 20 metres underground. Now, however, a well must be drilled anywhere from 150 to 200 metres.
Sections of the Red River run dry