Water is released at the reservoir of the A Vuong hydro power plant

Hydroelectric reservoirs were responsible for worsening flooding in the lowlands when they released water during typhoon Ketsana, a ministerial official said in an interview with Tuoi Tre on Friday.

Experts have said the release of water made the devastating floods even worse.

All hydroelectric reservoirs should have backup lakes for flood prevention, Hoc said. But there is no law requiring backups.

“However, it’s a fact that when establishing hydroelectric reservoirs, companies often aren’t willing to invest more money into the flood prevention backups.”

Not to mention that they want to store the most amount of water possible for their power production, he added. During the dry season, many such lakes lose water, which then can’t be used to make electricity.

“With the backups, it’s impossible for them to store fully water before the flood season,” the official said, noting that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has launched an inspection into the region’s reservoirs to evaluate their ability to control floods.

The ministry, meanwhile, is drafting a proposal that would compel reservoirs to have compulsory flood prevention backups, according to Hoc.

“Maybe the state will invest into the backups, depending on the reservoirs’ capacity.”

Mounting criticism

Several officials Friday blamed A Vuong Joint-stock Company (AVC) in Quang Nam Province for releasing too much water from its reservoir during the Ketsana floods, heavily submerging the Vu Gia River’s floodplains.

Le Minh Anh, chairman of the Quang Nam’s People’s Committee, said they had to allow the company to release the water, as AVC’s Quang Ngai reservoir was at risk of breaking.

“But when they started to release water at up to 2,680 cubic meters per second, the floods in the lowlands peaked higher than in previous years,” Anh said, adding that the province then asked the plant to decrease water flow to 500 cubic meters per second.

“This proved that there is something wrong with hydroelectric reservoirs’ water release management, which needs to be fixed for the sake of the floodplains.”

According to Anh, other reservoirs at the headwaters of the local Kon and Vang rivers also released water and worsened flooding during Ketsana.

On September 29, AVC asked the province government’s permission to release water from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. the same day at between 2,500-3,000 cubic meters per second, or 14 million cubic meters in total. But it then released water until 7 a.m. on October 1, local newspaper Lao Dong (Labor) reported recently.

The paper said a total of 149.3 million cubic meters were released by the facility, which contributed to floods reaching a ten-year peak, inundating many towns and districts, the paper said.

AVC Board Chairman Nguyen Van Le on Thursday said A Vuong Reservoir’s taks, as assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, was never to lessen floods. He said the facility’s only duty was to guarantee the operation of A Vuong hydroelectric plant, which provides power to the national grid.

However, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Huu Hao didn’t agree with Le’s statement.

“Under approved procedures, A Vuong Hydroelectric Plant mainly functions to generate power. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t supposed to contain floods,” Hao said.

He also warned that the plant’s director would be held responsible, if inspections find that the water release breached any regulations.

On the other hand, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hoa, vice chairwoman of Thua Thien – Hue city Province, said it was the provincial government that ordered Binh Dien reservoir to release water while the floods were already at their highest levels.

Binh Dien is facing the same criticism as A Vuong for its failure to contain floods.

Hoa said the decision to release water was made before water reached the reservoir’s designated full point, as managers were not entirely confident the recently-built reservoir could withstand that capacity.

“Design is one thing, but it’s another matter whether the dam’s safety is guaranteed or not…the most important thing to keep the dam safe,” she said.

Lashing the central Vietnam on September 29, typhoon Ketsana killed at least 163 people and caused over VND14 trillion (US$785.85 million) in property losses, according to the National Storm and Flood Control Committee.

In the meantime, Parma, the tenth storm to hit the East Sea this year, is approaching the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands with winds blowing at 62-74 kilometers per hour, the national weather forecast center said on its website on Saturday.

The storm will be 100 kilometers from the islands by Sunday at latest, according to the center.

Source: Tuoi Tre