VietNamNet Bridge – Since the day the hydropower plants arose on the upper Vu Gia River, two million people in Quang Nam province and Da Nang City cannot lead their peaceful life any more.

River gets depleted, fields saline

Previously, the Cau Do’s water in Da Nang got saline in March or May. However, in the last three years, it turns saline in January. The salinity is measured at 3,000 mg per liter sometimes, which means that the water cannot be used as running water.

For the last several years, the water from the Vu Gia upper has been running in low capacity, thus making the sea water encroaching deeply on the mainland. As a result, the Cau Do river’s water is getting saltier.

According Nguyen Truong Anh, Director of the Da Nang City Water Supply Company, in order to ease the high salinity, the company has to use water from Yen River additionally at An Trach barrage, about 6-7 months a year.

However, the water level at the An Trach barrage is also getting lower.

Huynh Van Thang, Deputy Director of the Da Nang City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, noted that the water level at the Ai Nghia Pumping Station in Quang Nam province – one of the Vu Gia River’s branches that provides 80 percent of the water needed to Da Nang City – has never been so low.

“The Cau Do River has got nearly exhausted and turned saline because of the rainfall decrease and the hydropower plants, which have taken away the water,” Thang said.

The depleting Vu Gia River has not only caused the water shortage to millions of people, but also threatened the 2,000 hectares of crops in Hoa Vang and Ngu Hanh Son districts of Da Nang City.

According to Nguyen Minh, a farmer in Ngu Hanh Son district, the rice is already in ear, therefore, the rice fields need a lot of water now.

“I have to get up at 3 am everyday to pump water into the rice fields, but there is not much water,” he complained.

Minh said the other farmers in the same hamlet have to pump water from the far Bau Trung reservoir to irrigate their rice fields. However, Bau Trung alone could not provide enough water for 130 hectares of rice fields in Hoa Quy area.

“The reservoir is also getting exhausted. If the hydropower plants continue storing water, the hundreds of hectares of the winter-spring rice fields in Hoa Quy would die of thirst,” he said.

Farmers miserable

Farmers have been miserable because the hydropower plants block the water stream, causing the water shortage. But they would be even more miserable if the plants discharge water, causing the floods.

Ho An, a local resident in Dai Loc district, said that about 40 houses in the locality are in the danger because of the landslide. Hundreds of other households have suffered because the hamlet’s 20 hectare field has blown off in a flood.

“The flood caused by the hydropower plants is a terror for us,” said Nguyen Minh, 52, in Dai Minh commune.

In the 2009’s flood, 95 percent of the houses in the district and hundreds of hectares of crops were inundated under the water. In the 2013’s flood, thousands of hectares of crops, tens of thousands of animals and poultries were swept away.

Dan Viet