VietNamNet Bridge – While Da Nang City persists with its struggle to demand hydropower plants return water to the Vu Gia River, the Quang Nam provincial authorities insist on it being routed to the Thu Bon River.

Hydropower plants deplete rivers

Since the period when a series of regional hydropower plants went into operation, rivers in the central region have consistently become depleted in the dry season.

People in the districts of Dai Loc, Dien Ban, Duy Xuyen in Quang Nam Province, and in the districts of Cam Le, Thanh Khe, Son Tra, Lieu Chieu and Ngu Hanh Son in Da Nang, are said to be suffering the water shortage most severely when the sun burns hot, drying the Vu Gia River.

According to Huynh Van Thang, Deputy Director of Da Nang’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, damages from the Dak Mi 4 hydropower plant’s impact on the lower course of the Vu Gia River are 5-10 times higher than the benefits the plant brings.

Floods and drought caused by the plant have affected 10,000 hectares of agricultural land in the lower course. It is estimated that farmers will lose VND200 billion ($10 million) every year, if 30 percent of their rice fields are damaged. This does not include the damage wrought by the epidemics regularly breaking out due to the water shortage.

According to the Da Nang Water Supply and Drainage Company, the salinity of the water supplied to the Cau Do Water Plant, which provides 90 percent of running water to the city, is sometimes 15 times than the permitted level. Last year, the company had to spend VND13 billion on treating the salinity.

The company also said that the waters of the Vu Gia River are becoming heavily polluted, leading to even higher costs for water treatment.

Meanwhile, Vo Van Diem, Deputy Director of the Quang Nam provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, has predicted that 10,600 hectares of rice and crops in the province may suffer heavily from the drought.

Struggling for water source to the last

The struggle of the people in the lower course of the Vu Gia and Thu Bon Rivers has lasted for the past three years.

The Da Nang City People’s Committee sent dispatches to the responsible ministries, insisting that the lower courses of Vu Gia and Thu Bon, including parts of Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province, must be provided enough water for agricultural production and daily life. The city requested that the Dak Mi 4 plant discharge water back to Vu Gia River at a rate of 25 cubic meters per second.

The current problem is that, while Dak Mi 4 removes water from the Vu Gia, it discharges it to the Thu Bon River. This has exhausted Vu Gia’s waters in the dry season. “Vu Gia’s water must be given back to Vu Gia,” Deputy Director Thang said.

However, Nguyen Ngoc Quang, Deputy Chair of Quang Nam’s People’s Committee, said at a recent meeting that he wants Dak Mi 4 to store water so as to be able to serve the summer-winter crops in Quang Nam. “I know Da Nang is seriously lacking in water. But the situation is also very bad in Quang Nam,” Quang said.

As such, the involved parties still have not found a common voice.

Nong Nghiep