The unscheduled discharge of water in large quantities from hydropower plants have worsened the impacts of flooding in Central Vietnam, lawmakers said in a Q&A session of the ongoing sitting of the National Assembly (NA), the country’s legislative body, in Hanoi Nov 19. Despite rising floodwaters, operators of the hydropower plants decided to release water from reservoirs to ensure the dams’ safety regardless of the lives of thousands of local residents, triggering intense public outcry. Do Van Duong, lawmaker from Ho Chi Minh City, complained that such plants discharged water to earn some billions of Vietnamese dongs from power generation while the water discharge caused damages worth thousands of billions of dongs. Their self-interest was unacceptable and should be accountable to the state, he noted. Although local residents blamed the great damages on the intentional discharge of water from hydropower dams, the plants’ owners and the Ministry of Industry and Trade refused to take responsibility by saying that only a few plants released water. However, a reported by the Central-Central Highlands Center for Floods Control and Prevention showed that up to 15 plants had water discharge capacity above 400 cubic meters/second on Nov 16. Specifically, Dak Mi hydropower plant released 4,000-5,000 cu.m/s, Song Tranh hydropower plant with 2,352 cu.m/s, Song Ba Ha 2,400 cu.m/s, Ya Ly 2,000 cu.m/s and Song Bung plant 1,200 cu.m/s. The floodwaters now take two hours instead of one day to submerge half of the houses nearby and sweep away all essential goods and cattle of the locals. Thus, the plants were obviously involved in the case, according to Nguyen Minh Tuan, head of Quang Nam’s Steering Committee for Floods Control and Prevention. On the sidelines of the session on Nov 18, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai affirmed that stakeholders, including hydropower investors and local authorities, must be held responsible for discharging water in the flooding season, and that concerned agencies must tighten control of hydropower plants in their localities. The government has agreed to remove about 400 hydropower projects from the national plan, Mr. Hai noted. The floodwaters triggered by heavy rains and the water discharge of the hydropower plants left 41 deaths, five missing and injured 93 others while inundating 6,500 hectares of paddy and other crops as of Nov 19. Floods and storms cause Vietnam to lose an estimated one fifth of its GDP per year, according to data by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). (http://vnexpress.net [1] Nov 19, Doanh Nhan Sai Gon – Saigon Businessman Nov 19, Dau Tu – Investment Nov 20)
