VietNamNet Bridge - Experts have repeatedly warned about the overabundance of hydropower plants in the central region and Central Highlands which have devastated forests and badly affected people’s lives. However, more hydropower projects are still queuing for licenses.

TECCO, the investor of the Drang Phok hydropower project, expected to be built in the strictly protected area of the Yok Don National Park in Buon Don district of Dak Lak province, has held a workshop to consult with experts about the possible impact on the environment. 

The project is scheduled to start this year end.

Analysts warned that Drang Phok plant, with designed capacity of 26MW and the total investment capital of VND850 billion, if it is built, will have negative impact on the Vietnamese dipterocarp forest ecosystem and local people.

S

Experts have repeatedly warned about the overabundance of hydropower plants in the central region and Central Highlands which have devastated forests and badly affected people’s lives. However, more hydropower projects are still queuing for licenses.

ome analysts said they could not understand why the project, expected to be developed in the core area of a national park, still has been approved by state management agencies.

The area is on the riverside of Serepok, where there are luxuriant trees, including the ones with the diameter of one meter or more which promise huge volume of timber. Not far away from there is the typical area of dipterocarp forest where there are well-preserved rare and precious trees

Pointing to the ancient trees with the diameter of one meter, a forest ranger said the trees belong to a very rare and valuable species. 

“A hydropower plant here will tear the national park into two parts, which will seriously affect the conservation of rare and precious flora and fauna,” he said.

The investor’s report showed that the project would cover an area of 308 hectares, including 28.88 hectares of forest, which, according to the investor, is a modest area. 

However, experts pointed out that the total wood output in the area is very large with 1,200 cubic meters of wood.

Do Quang Tung, director of the Yok Don National Park, said it was still unclear how many hectares of forests would be cleared to make room for the hydropower plant.

“No one would build avhydropower plant right in the core area of national parks, where rare and precious species need strict protection,” he said. “Therefore, we protest against the project."

Tran Tuan Linh, deputy head of the Yok Don National Park’s Forest Rangers’ Unit, also expressed his worry that the hydropower plant would lead to the biodiversity reduction in the park and affect the living environment of animals, especially wild elephants.

Meanwhile, the construction of the Dak Re hydropower project in Ba Xa commune of Ba To district in Quang Ngai province has started, though legal procedures have not been fulfilled.

The local agriculture department said the investor has encroached on 0.7 hectares of forest put under the management of JICA 2 project, and other forestland areas nearby.


NLD