Power plant using water 'for farmers'
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Fields in Quang Nam province face shortage as firm 'reneges on agreement'
Thousands of hectares of rice and cereal fields in Quang Nam Province are set to suffer from a serious shortage of water in the coming month, with the region’s Dak Mi 4 Hydroelectric Plant continuing to use up water for power generation, despite agreeing to pause its activities.
The province’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department revealed on Saturday that the hydroelectric plants of A Vuong, Dak Mi 4, Song Tranh, Song Con, Song Bung 5 and Song Bung 6 had agreed to halt their use of water in the lowlands from April 12 to May 15 to save water for agricultural production of the coming crop.
This agreement was reached by the provincial people’s committee, the Directorate of Water Resources, the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Viet Nam, Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and local hydro-electric plants at the beginning of last month.
However, Nguyen Thanh Quang, director of the province’s department said Dak Mi 4 Hydro-Electricity Plant had since failed to implement the agreement.
A departmental inspection last week revealed that the plant was continuing its usual operations. Its management board claimed that responsibility lay with the National Load Dispatch Centre of EVN, Quang said. The department has ordered the plant to cease operations, but this move has not yet been implemented.
Nguyen Minh Tuan, head of the province’s Water Resources Unit said if Dak Mi 4 Hydroelectric Plant continued to ignore the deal, its reservoirs would soon be empty.
This would be devastating for local communities reliant on water for farming, he said.
Resource Unit statistics show that 20 out of 73 irrigation lakes in the region are not full.
The department is waiting for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to punish the Dak Mi plant.
