VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has suggested an initiative which it believes can settle the water dispute between the Da Nang City authorities and the developer of the Dak Mi 4 hydropower plant. However, the initiative would cost multi billions of dong.

The Da Nang City authorities have accused the Dak Mi 4 hydropower plant of taking away all the water for the city dwellers’ daily use.

MARD believes that the best solution for now is to block the Quang Hue River current with packs of sand to drive the water to the Ai Nghia River, which would run into Da Nang City. The solution is expected to cost VND1 billion.

However, this is just the temporary solution for the dry season. In the flood season, the sand bags would be let to be swept away by the water. This means that the VND1 billion would be sunk under the water.

Huynh Van Thang, Deputy Director of the Da Nang City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, on April 9 affirmed that the involved parties have agreed on the solution after a meeting to settle the dispute.

The current blocking would bring effects immediately. This would ease the drought being incurred by the dwellers in Da Nang City and in some communes of Quang Nam province.

However, Thang admitted that any measures to be applied now would be just temporary solutions.

Thang went on to say that right after the meeting, Da Nang City and Quang Nam province sat together to discuss the measures to fight against the drought.

Hoang Thanh Hoa, Deputy Directr of the Da Nang City’s Irrigation and Anti-flood Agency, said the blocking of the Quang Hue current aims to give water to the Ai Nghia water, which provides 80 percent of the water to Da Nang City.

In the past, before the Dak Mi 4 hydropower plant was built, the water capacity flowing from the Vu Gia River system to Thu Bon River through the Quang Hue dropped to 20 percent only, while the other 80 percent flew to Ai Nghia.

However, as the Dak Mi hydropower plant took away the water of Vu Gia, only 40 percent of water can flow to Ai Nghia.

“It’s impossible to build a solid embankment system because it would cost a lot of money, while the whole irrigation system in the lower course would be badly influenced,” Thang said.

Also according to Thang, it’s now necessary to draw up the project, and the work is being carried out by MARD.

The conclusion about the construction of a temporary embankment system has raised the anger among the public. Experts think that the measure would badly affect the lowlands. Especially, they said it is the investor, who has to spend money on the solutions to give water back to people, not MARD, which spends the state’s money.

People have also expressed their satisfaction when hearing that the investors of the A Vuong and Dak Mi 4 hydropower plants committed to discharge water to ensure people’s normal daily life as requested by the local authorities, but they “ignored” the payment for the anti-drought activities. Meanwhile, they were the culprits that caused the droughts.

Tien Phong