The hydropower plants Song Tranh 2, Song Con, A Vuong and Dak Mi 4 are being asked to boost water discharge into the downstream to save the drought-hit rice growing areas.



This is a request of the government of Quang Nam Province given in a document sent to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) on Monday.

Although the hydropower plants have begun to discharge water, the discharge volumes are not enough to remedy the drought situation in the downstream areas of the Vu Gia and Thu Bon rivers, said Quang Nam’s government.

The provincial government requested Dak Mi 4 to discharge water into the lower section of the Vu Gia River at a speed of 25 cubic meters per second, while each turbine of A Vuong has been asked to release water 16 hours a day. Song Con is urged to discharge 16-20 cubic meters of water per second for 8-10 hours every day, and Song Tranh 2 is to continuously discharge 110 cubic meters each second.

“The province has asked the hydropower plants to maintain the aforementioned discharge volumes until June 10. At present, the Vu Gia River is extremely short of water for irrigation, and has to depend on the water discharged from the hydropower plants,” said Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the Quang Nam Sub-Department of Irrigation.

Some 15,000 hectares of rice downstream of the Vu Gia and Thu Bon rivers in Quang Nam is suffering from severe drought conditions.

Huynh Van Thang, deputy director of the Danang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told the Daily that the current discharge volumes have eased the water shortage for nearly 8,000 hectares of rice in Danang. However, if the volumes were not increased, Thang feared the drought would get worse in June and July.

Vu Van Dung, deputy head of the management board for the Dak Mi 4 hydroelectricity project, said the power plant could not release 25 cubic meters of water per second upon request of the authorities of Danang and Quang Nam, because the upstream water level is currently too low.

With the current discharge volume of 15 cubic meters a second, Dak Mi 4 has to reduce power generation, equivalent to a loss of VND500 million per day, said Dung.

SGT