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Vietnam checks hydroelectric projects accused of worsening floods

Published: 09/10/2009 05:00

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The agriculture ministry has begun inspecting hydroelectric reservoirs in central Vietnam that have been criticized recently for worsening floods caused by typhoon Ketsana late last month.

Water is releed at the dam of A Vuong hydro power plant in Quang Nam Province

The check began Friday in Thua Thien - Hue city province, where the Binh Dien Hydroelectric Reservoir at the beginning of the Huong River allegedly failed to contain floods as its investor committed upon its establishment.

According to statistics from the provincial Flood and Storm Prevention and Dyke Protection Agency, the reservoir had overflowed by 1 a.m. on September 29, before Ketsana made its full landfall at midday.

At 12 p.m. the reservoir had overflowed and was pouring out of all five of its doors by 1 a.m. the next day, the agency said.

Critics said fewer doors should have been opened to spare the lowlands.

Saying the reservoir released water at its full capacity to protect the dam and the land below, Dinh Huu Tan, director general of Binh Dien Hydroelectric Joint-stock Company, admitted that the reservoir failed to control the floods.

Binh Dien reservoir’s maximum water release increased the water level on the Huong River, submerging Hue’s city streets and floodplains such as Phu Vang, Quang Dien, and Huong Tra districts, said Phan Thanh Hung, head of the Thua Thien – Hue storm and flood control agency.

Floods also put Binh Dien Hydroelectric Plant under water, destroying two electric generators there.

The plant is expected to resume working with one generator by December.

Another culprit

Located in Quang Nam Province’s Ma Cooi Commune, A Vuong Hydroelectric Plant has also been criticized by the press since Ketsana hit Vietnam, leaving 163 dead and causing over VND14 trillion (US$785 million) in losses throughout the central region.

On September 29, A Vuong Hydroelectric Company Joint-stock (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, yet 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.

The release contributed to floods reaching a ten-year peak, inundating many towns and districts, Lao Dong said.

Dinh Van Thu, vice chairman of Quang Nam’s People’s Committee, blamed AVC for bad timing.

“It is ok for AVC to release water when the lower sections of the rivers are at the first or yet to reach the second alarm level,” Thu said. Vietnam gauges its rivers probability of flooding by four alarm levels.

“But, AVC asked to release water when the lower sections of Quang Nam’s rivers were nearly at level three,” he said. “Therefore, water flowing from A Vuong reservoir submerged floodplains.”

Deputy director general of AVC Le Dinh Ban, denied the facility released more water than it should have.

“The amount of released water was measured by an electronic system approved by the state’s estimate committee…We didn’t release more water than we said we would,” Lao Dong quoted Ban as saying.

Speaking about the timing of the release, Ban said: “If we hadn’t released water [at 2,680 cubic meters per second], the dam would have broken, causing unimaginable consequences – not only would the plant have been destroyed, but 343 million cubic meters of water per second would have flowed into the floodplains.”

On the other hand, AVC Board Chairman Nguyen Van Le said the Ministry of Industry and Trade never asked A Vuong Reservoir 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.

In related news, water levels in Mekong Delta are increasing and have almost reached level three on the alarm scale in Tay Ninh and An Giang provinces, according to the Southern Hydro-Meteorological Center.

Storm Parma, the tenth storm to hit the East Sea, returned to the East Sea Firday with winds blowing at 62-74 kilometers per hour after looming off the coast of the Philippines since Thursday, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said in a statement on its website on that day.

If the storm, which has killed at least 26 people in the Philippines after making two landfalls since last Saturday, doesn’t change its direction, it will hit China’s Hainan Island within the next three days, said Bui Minh Tang, director of the center.

However, there is still a chance it will change its direction and hit Vietnam’s northern central region or die out on the East Sea, Tang noted.

VietNamNet/TN/TT

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