The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has called for the cancellation of a hydropower project in Dak Lak Province due to its possible environmental threat.
According to the ministry, TECCO’s USD40.4 million 26-MW Drang Phok hydropower project would see around 60ha of forest land in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak's Yok Don National Park confiscated.
Yok Don National Park
The plant operation will also directly affect the life of the national park's animals, particularly elephants and tigers. Meanwhile, the construction of a dam on Drang Phok Lake could damage biodiversity and the heighten water levels which could fuel the illegal wood transport of wood from the park, the ministry added.
The ministry said the Central Highlands already faced 6.1% loss of forest coverage over the past five years, particularly around Yok Don National Park. Additionally, increasingly unpredictable weather and adverse climatic conditions were having an adverse effect on local people's lives.
In 2009, the government agreed to use the forest land of Yok Don National Park for the hydropower project.
A project to build a canal and six hydropower plants on the Red River which flows through nearly ten provinces has also faced similar environmental concerns and fears over the potential impact on agriculture.
