Hoa Binh hydropower dam reports the lowest water level since it started operations.

According to a report from the Hoa Binh Hydropower Company, by Monday afternoon, the dam’s water level dropped to 101.14m, or 16m lower than the normal working level of 117m.

For more than a month now, the water level at the dam has not exceeded 103m.

The total volume of water that the dam currently holds is three billion cu.m lower than the normal level.

The total amount of water feeding into Hoa Binh reservoir, located on Da River, during the rainy season this year (lasting from June to September) reached 14.7 billion cu.m, less than half of previous years’ averages and the lowest since the hydropower plant officially went into operation in 1994, according to Nguyen Dinh Thuy from the technical safety department of the Hoa Binh Hydropower Company.

The expected inflows at the end of the flooding season were also disappointing, so there is a high chance of prolonged drought or water shortages, especially when the hydropower dam must hold in water in order to ensure irrigation demands for the winter-spring crops in early 2020 while generating enough electricity and maintaining a reasonable flow of water for use in downstream regions.

The Hoa Binh dam also depends a great deal on the Son La dam, also one of the country’s major hydropower projects situated about 200km to the north in the northern mountainous province of Son La.

To raise the water level in the Hoa Binh dam, Son La will need to discharge a significant amount of water, but that’s looking unlikely as the Son La dam itself is also dealing with unusual acridity, Hoa Binh company’s official said, a struggle most major hydropower reservoirs in the country share.

Given the role of the 1,920MW of the Hoa Binh hydropower plant in the national electricity supply, the State-owned Vietnam Electricity is asking the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to allow the four major hydropower dams – Hoa Binh, Son La, Thac Ba and Tuyen Quang – to prioritise power generation and limit the discharge of water downstream. — VNS

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