Many Vietnamese scientists and authorities strongly rejected two hydropower projects which are proved to seriously affect the environment, including the ecosystem, the migration of fish, wildlife, river currents and water saturation. Almost all 20 scientists and authorities vehemently opposed Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A hydropower projects at a conference held Oct 26 for their serious impacts on the environment and life of dozens of millions people in some southern provinces. The hydropower plants would destroy 327 hectares of forest in Cat Tien National Park and its buffer zones in the southern province of Binh Phuoc and the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Nong and Lam Dong, said Vo Van Chanh, deputy chairman of Dong Nai Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The plants would also limit the forest biodiversity and hinder forest protection, Chanh said, adding that they would affect the Ramsar Convention site’s Bau Sau crocodile lake where a large population of Indochina crocodile live, is a unique place. This is the only site where crocodiles live in the middle of the primary forest. Vu Ngoc Long, director of the Center for Biodiversity and Development, said the plants would destroy the habitats of a wide range of rare species, including the Indochina crocodile, the endangered Normascus gabriellace, the endangered Orchidantha vietnamica and a newly discovered flora named Camellia longii. Other scientists said the plants would change the hydrological conditions and natural flow of the river, mostly Dong Nai river, resulting in a water supply shortage, flooding during the rainy season and a draught in the dry season. They worried that the entrance to the plants would enable illegal loggers to cut down forest trees in the park. The plants are also likely to ruin the livelihoods and traditional culture of local ethnic minorities like Chau Ma, T’Sieng, and M’Nong. “The ethnic minority groups would be driven away from their homes and land,” said Long. Many of the scientists said that the case should be submitted to the National Assembly (NA), the country’s top legislative body, as the projects would affect six times higher of national parkland for any construction required by the NA’s approval. Earlier, local scientists including those from the Tropical Biology Institute, the Vietnam River Network and the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA) sent a petition to the Government Office and the NA, urging to verify two hydropower projects. However, not a few senior officials of several authorized ministries and scientists have advocated for the controversial projects, saying they have heard about the environmental impacts but the consequence is minor. The officials’ irresponsibility is no longer strange in the Communist country of Vietnam where rashly signature, approval and license remain rampant and as it has no independent and reliant supervision agency to investigate and find out wrongdoings. Such irresponsible words cause deep dudgeon among local people whose taxes are used without supervision in the country which was ranked third most corrupted in Asia-Pacific by Hong Kong-based PERC consulting firm. (Sai Gon Giai Phong –Saigon Liberation Oct 27 p1, Tuoi Tre – Youth Oct 27 p15, Vietnamnews Oct 27 p2)
