VietNamNet Bridge – People in the Central Highlands area are afraid that hydropower plants may discharge water in the rainy season, thus threatening their normal lives.

Rainy season has brought water crops fields and orchards. But farmers are concerned that hydropower plants will discharge water and cause heavy floods as they did in the past.

Originating from the Kon Plong Mount in Kon Tum province, the Ba River, at a height of 1,500 meters above sea level, with the length of 388 kilometers, ranks sixth among nine main river systems in Vietnam in terms of hydropower development capability.

Ba is called the “power river” with many hydropower plants built on it over the last 10 years.

The biggest hydropower plant on Ba River is the 173 MW An Khe-Ka Nak plant, located on the river section that goes through Gia Lai Province, which churns out 685.03 million kwh of electricity a year.

In Kong Chro and Krong Pa districts alone, there are four hydropower plants developed by Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, namely Dak Srong 2, Dak Srong 2A, Dak Srong 3A, Dak Srong 3B, with total capacity of 71.5 MW.

Also on the Ba mainstream, there are Dak Srong hydropower plant run by the Dak Srong JSC with the capacity of 18 MW and Song Ba Ha plant with the capacity of 220 MW.

In January 2011, An Khe-Ka Nak began storing water, depleting the Ba River. As the river stream changed, the water flowed to the Kon River in Binh Dinh province, and Gia Lai suffered from serious environment pollution.

The short water supply then severely affected the production and daily life of the over 300,000 locals residing in six districts in Gia Lai province and some districts in Phu Yen province along the Ba River.

Reports by competent agencies show that the districts need 14 million cubic meters of running water and 300 billion cubic meters of water for crop fields a year.

According to the chair of Gia Lai province Dao Xuan Lien, the hydropower plants discharge water en masse in the rainy season, causing floods on rice fields, but discharge water in dribs and drabs at four cubic meters per second in the dry season, causing heavy drought.

In February 2012, a heavy flood caused by water discharge from a hydropower plant swept away 50 hectares of crops, tens of cows and buffaloes, and over 60 pump engines in Kbang District. Just one year later, in November 2013, hundreds of hectares of agricultural land in Binh Dinh province were inundated, also because of the unexpected water discharge.

In June 2013, the Ia Krel 2 hydropower dam, which was built mostly with soil, broke down after heavy rains, though the reservoir had stored only 50 percent of its water capacity.

Thien Nhien