Waste of budget
Tu Cau pumping station is located in the middle of the rice fields along the Vinh Dien river. There is no other way but from DT603 road towards National Highway 1 down to Dien Ngoc, turn right, follow the narrow concrete road, follow the bank of the small canal leading water to Hoa Quy (Cam Le, Da Nang) to the station.
Tran Quang Minh - one of many pumping station operators said that normally the station will run 6 irrigation machines for the entire 200ha of rice fields in this area.
On March 25, 2024, only one machine was running for the Hoa Quy canal. The other fields had been irrigated. The river was always salty. There were years when the anti-salt operation was only a few hours a day, so the government had to build temporary dams to save the rice fields.
Downstream of the river, about 350m from Tu Cau station, a sand dam to prevent saltwater intrusion and retain fresh water (nearly 100m long) was completed in early March 2024, connecting Ngan Cau and Viem Trung fields (Dien Ngoc).
According to the People's Committee of Dien Ban town, from 2013 to now, every year, the town has to allocate a budget of 3 to 4 billion VND to implement plans to prevent drought and salinity.
Specifically, a temporary dam is being built on Vinh Dien River to prevent salinity and retain fresh water to ensure irrigation water for about 1,855 hectares of agricultural land in communes and wards in the eastern part of Dien Ban town and the areas of Hoi An City and Hoa Quy (Da Nang).
However, the saltwater dam is a temporary sand dam. Every year, investment is made from the beginning of the solar year, and the dam is dismantled around the end of September when the crop season is over to ensure water flow during the rainy season.
The siltation and salinity of the Vinh Dien River is not a new phenomenon. According to Dr. Le Thi Mai (Faculty of History, Da Nang University of Education) and Dr. Nguyen Huong (National Archives Center I, Hanoi), the Nguyen Dynasty's records show that the Vinh Dien River was dredged for three consecutive years (from March of the 5th year of Minh Mang - 1824 to July of the 7th year of Minh Mang - 1826), costing an unknown amount of money and effort.
The Nguyen Dynasty and its contemporaries were still helpless in the face of silting up the river mouth, alluvial congestion, narrowing of the flow, salt water flooding into people's fields, making it inconvenient for irrigation, travel and trade.
Even the high-ranking mandarin Pham Phu Thu had to submit a petition to “request filling the river”. The court was powerless, only able to conduct an investigation, review the old case to convict and severely punish the mandarins who had managed the dredging (even the deceased mandarins), even though Vinh Dien River was one of the six rivers that the Nguyen kings had allowed to be dredged, as engraved on the Edict!
Now, every year, the Dien Ban town government still has to build dams. This is a waste of budget. Many questions arise as to why the government and management agencies do not consider investing in building a bara or at least a “permanent” spillway to prevent salinity and retain fresh water on the Vinh Dien river?
No policy yet
According to data released by the Dien Ban town government, if calculated, each year it costs 3 to 4 billion VND to build a dam, adding up to tens of billions of VND, enough to build a "permanent" saltwater barrier dam, instead of having to find sand to build every year.
Even finding sand to build a dam is not always smooth sailing. In 2023, when this temporary dam project was put up for bidding (February 16, 2023), no business participated in the construction package because the price of sand on the market was too high.
In June 2023, at a meeting with the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee, the Dien Ban town government clearly saw the prolonged waste of budget, and proposed to invest in the construction of a "permanent" saltwater barrier dam on the Vinh Dien River to "keep fresh water", creating irrigation water for 1,855 hectares of agricultural land and domestic water for the town's residents. The management agencies also agreed to this.
Mr. Tran Van An - Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment said it is necessary to study the feasibility of investing in a saltwater dam. Resources are limited and can only be included in the 2026 - 2030 investment portfolio.
Mr. Truong Xuan Ty - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that he had intended to hold a workshop on investing in the construction of a saltwater dam with little impact on the environment, but there was no official opinion on the investment policy.
Nearly 9 months have passed, but there has been no official document or intention from the provincial government to approve or include in the 2026 - 2030 medium-term investment portfolio the investment project to build a "permanent" saltwater barrier dam on the Vinh Dien River.
According to documents from the People's Committee of Dien Ban town, 4 years ago, the town government and relevant departments (Agriculture and Rural Development, Planning and Investment) surveyed a number of barracks in the South and confirmed that it was technically feasible and did not require much capital.
According to Mr. Tran Uc - Chairman of Dien Ban Town People's Committee, the town government has proposed many times to build a "permanent" dam or bar. But the Da Nang government did not agree.
The reason why building a dam will block the flow, affect downstream, and cause saltwater intrusion, so an EIA (environmental impact assessment) is still not highly agreed upon. The town does not have enough authority to decide to invest in this project because this is a provincially managed river branch.
Dien Ban has proposed many times and will continue to propose the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Planning and Investment, and Provincial People's Committee to take charge of this. Even when implementing the DH7 bridge and road project, connecting the northern beltway, the town also proposed to invest in the bridge bridge, but it was not approved.
There has been no consensus on building a dam to prevent salinity and keep fresh water “forever” on the Vinh Dien River. Many opinions say that nearly 2,000 hectares of rice fields in Dien Ngoc, Dien Nam, Vinh Dien, Dien An, Dien Minh, Dien Phuong... need to be converted to other crops.
However, Mr. Tran Uc said that talking about crop conversion and accepting salinity is not a simple matter because he does not know what crops will be suitable for the local soil conditions in these fields. Although he knows that it will waste the budget every year, he still has to wait for the decision from the competent authority.
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