Hydropower plants in the Central Highlands are destroying the region’s environment, the Natural Resources Minister said in a note to a National Assembly member this week.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen wrote to National Assembly representative Nguyen Dinh Xuan this week to inform him that surprise inspections at nine hydropower plants in the region last July found all plants in breach of their promises to protect the environment.

The plants have been destroying forests, blocking the natural flow of rivers and polluting the water while those operating the plants have yet to take into account the ecological consequences the facilities will render in areas both upstream and downstream of the plants, Nguyen said.

His ministry has also sent a similar note to the Prime Minister and another asking province governments in the Central Highlands to take urgent measures to protect the environment, one of which would be thinking twice before allowing the construction of new hydropower plants to continue.

The ministry also plans to issue detailed guidelines on managing river basins, operating hydropower dams and creating dam networks between large hydropower plants such as Son La, Hoa Binh, Tuyen Quang and Thac Ba, Nguyen said.

Blind eyes, deaf ears

Nguyen The Hung, head of the irrigation technology department at Da Nang Polytechnics University, said hydropower plants in the central region were not built properly because companies and local government building the facilities ignored scientists.

Hung said authorities and plant contractors rarely consulted experts in the field. “As far as I know, there was never a conference for researchers like me to discuss a hydropower plant project.”

He said investors depend on whatever consulting agency they hire and insist that agency knows best at all times.

“It might be reasonable for the investors themselves, but not for the communities downstream of the plant.”

Scientists should be provided with all documents related to hydropower projects so that they can contribute their opinions to ensure safety and efficacy, Hung said.

The lecturer also said operations at most hydropower plants were “not right.”

He blamed poor operations at the plants “for all the heavy floods in the region lately.”

Hung said rainfall alone couldn’t make the floods as severe as they were.

The 150 million cubic meters of water released by A Vuong Hydropower Plant during storm Ketsana in September has been widely blamed for worsening flooding that killed at least 163 people and caused over VND14 trillion (US$786 million) in property damage.

Ba Ha River Hydropower Dam was accused of doing the same early this month when typhoon Mirinae lashed the south central coast. Floods caused by the storm killed 123 people and caused property damage worth over VND5 trillion (US$280 million).

“There must be something abnormal about the discharge of water at those plants and we need to sit together and send independent inspectors to find out what,” said Hung.

Evidence

But earlier on Tuesday, deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai told reporters that climate change was more a cause of the central region’s devastating floods than the reckless discharge of water by hydropower plants. “Areas with the most casualties were not affected by the water released from power plants… Deaths occurred in places we don’t expect. It’s a result of climate change.”

Ta Van Huong, head of the Energy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, demanded that agencies give evidence if they want to blame the discharges for worsening the floods sparked by recent typhoons.

Huong admitted that not all hydropower dams were designed to fight floods and that his ministry had not cooperated well with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in the hydropower plant construction field. He said his department was more concerned with power generation while MARD focused its worries on irrigation.

Source: Tuoi Tre