The embankment of Dau Tieng Lake upstream the Saigon River could be crumbling under the pressure of big sand-carrying trucks running on the dam, and in the worst scenario the situation can become a catastrophe, a source said.

Scores of trucks come to take sand exploited from the lake bed every day and then transport the sand to other places by running on the dam surface. Vibrating impacts on the dam caused by such trucks pose a huge danger, especially when the water level in the lake is high as the levee system will be weakened and breached, said Vu Duc Hung, director of Dau Tieng-Phuoc Hoa Irrigation Co.

As observed by the Daily on Tuesday, there were dozens of heavy trucks gathering in the lake bed and passing on the main dam to carry sand within hours in the morning.

“To ensure the solidity of the dam system in flooding and rainy seasons, we have erected 13 signs banning 3-ton trucks along the dam but all have been uprooted. Trucks going on the dams when the water level is high can pose the risk of the dam breaking up, affecting downstream areas,” Hung said.

Hung stressed the need of protecting the dams as the water level of the lake has surpassed the Alarm Level No. 2, reaching 23.6 meters due to torrential rains in recent days, and raising the water amount in the lake to 1.3 billion cubic meters.

Normally, if Dau Tieng Lake discharges 500 cubic meters of water a second, low-lying parts of HCMC will be flooded though its designed discharge capacity can reach 2,800 cubic meters per second.

Under Decree 112/2008/ND-CP on managing, protecting and exploiting resources of reservoirs, the sand gathering in Dau Tieng lake bed and trucks moving on dams must be banned. Dau Tieng-Phuoc Hoa Irrigation Co., therefore, has reported the situation and asked for support from local police in preventing trucks but this situation still continues, Hung said.

The 27,000-hectare Dau Tieng Lake encompassing parts of Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh and Binh Duong provinces has supplied water for farming over 28 years. It is also deployed to prevent salinity intrusion on the Saigon River.

SGT