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.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Many investors who once rushed to pour money into hydropower projects are so deep in debt they are not sure when they will ever recover.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Da Nang, which estimates the lack of one billion cubic meters of water due to the hydropower plants, has raised the water price and prepared for a lawsuit against the government agency.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), in the document answering Quang Nam people’s question about the responsibility of hydropower plants, said it is unreasonable to claim for the damages caused by the floods.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Since the day hydropower plants sprung up in the highland, lowland people have been living in constant anxiety. They have lost the land for agriculture production, faced drought in dry season and floods in rainy months.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Experts believe that investors won’t make profits with their small hydropower plant projects, and they understand this well. However, they still ask for the permission to implement the projects, for other purposes.

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has approximately 7,000 hydropower and irrigation reservoirs. Tens of small and medium hydropower plants and hundreds of reservoirs have degraded seriously, compared as the “water bombs” hung over local residents.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese scientists have voiced their deep concern about the fate of the Mekong Delta and the Vietnamese rice farming in the context of the hydropower plant boom.

VietNamNet Bridge – Illegal sand exploitation by local residents and authorities along the Dong Nai River has increased rather than diminished in the last decade, despite efforts to ban it.

Though the Cat Tien National Park has lost its last rhino, it still has bulls, bears, tigers, leopards… with more than 1,360 species of vascular plants and over 440 species plants that give precious timber.

Local people have to pay a heavy price for the hydropower plants arisen in their homeland. They have been leading unstable lives with the modest average income of VND7.2 million per annum.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed to stop 338 hydropower projects after checking the 1,200 planned projects.

 VietNamNet Bridge –Water levels of many hydropower reservoirs in central provinces have continued to decline and affected the power generation with some plants running at only one-fourth capacity.

Businesses have been warned that the electricity price would be raised one or two times at least in 2013.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) plans to exclude 338 projects from the list of hydropower plant projects to be developed nationwide.

VRN has officially petitioned to remove the Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A projects from the hydropower plant development program, because the two projects are believed to have negative impacts on the society and the environment.

Water is the national property which has been shared among the people in the community. And when a party conducts the behaviors that cause the harm to the others’ benefit, the others can sue the party for the behavior.

VietNamNet Bridge – Over 20,000 hectares of forest had been chopped down for several purposes, mostly for development of hydropower plants, but only around 700 hectares had been replanted as of the end of 2012.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Hydropower plants in the central province of Quang Nam have been urged to discharge water to prevent severe droughts in the area.

While other governments in the world reconsider hydropower plant development strategies and the world’s big organizations do not fund hydropower projects any more, Vietnam still cherishes a keen desire to develop hydropower.