Authorized organs representing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have said that they or the ministry have no direct authority to instruct Dak Mi 4 Hydropower Plant to open its ground sluice gates to release water into the Vu Gia River.
Speaking at a joint meeting to discuss measures to cope with the drought conditions in the area, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the central province of Quang Nam, and Da Nang City, said this authority was actually under the sole jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Nguyen Minh Tuan, head of the Irrigation Department in Quang Nam, said that the ongoing drought since early this year will badly affect the summer-autumn rice crop.
At present, water levels are very low in 20 of the 74 reservoirs in the province, now almost drying up 5,000 hectares of rice area, with vast areas of about 16,000ha and thousands of hectares under vegetable cultivation also under threat.
Tuan has proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to work with EVN and Hydropower Plants on a specific schedule to discharge water to the lowlands from June to August.
In case waters in the Vu Gia River are insufficient for residents and farm production, the Agriculture Ministry should instruct Dak Mi 4 Plant to release water as per suggested plan of the Quang Nam and Da Nang People’s Committees.
The Agriculture Ministry should also work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on a systematic operational plan for hydropower reservoirs to release water into the rivers.
Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province have requested the General Department of Irrigation to work with relevant sides to specify an address for them to contact when they want to ask hydropower plants to discharge water.
Dang Duy Hien, deputy head of the Irrigation Works Management Department, said that local authorities can contact with him when they want hydropower plants to release water.
Le Duy Vong, head of the Irrigation Department in Da Nang City, has proposed that Dak Mi 4 Plant open its ground sluice gates to release water at 25 cubic meters per second into the depleted Vu Gia River.
Hien said that he would refer this proposal to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. At present, the sole jurisdiction to open the ground sluice gates of the hydropower plants is under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Neither the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development nor EVN have the authority to do so, he said.
Vu Xuan Khu, director of the National Load Dispatch Center (NLDC)--a unit of EVN, also said that opening of ground sluice gates does not come under their jurisdiction.
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