Nghe An faces the risk of widespread drought, life is disrupted

The upstream of the largest hydroelectric lake in the Central region has exposed bottom.

The capacity of Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir (Tuong Duong District, Nghe An) is more than 1.8 billion m3; of which the useful capacity from the elevation of 155 - 200 m is 1.3 billion m3 of water. However, from the beginning of May 2023 until now, the water level in Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir has decreased sharply.

Prolonged drought has caused the bottom of Ban Ve Lake to dry out, making it difficult for boats to travel. Therefore, local people have to wade through mud and walk hundreds of meters to reach the boat dock. Notably, Huoi Pung village (Huu Khuong commune, Tuong Duong district) is located about 8km from the commune center and has 83 households. To leave the village, Huoi Pung people often travel by boat. However, the water level in Ban Ve Lake is currently too low for boats to enter the village.

Prolonged drought has caused the bottom of Ban Ve Lake to dry up.

Mr. Lo Van Giap, Chairman of the People's Committee of Huu Khuong Commune, said that in the face of the above situation, the locality mobilized people to repair the forgotten mountain road, more than 3km long, from the village to the boat dock for people to travel. "Never before has the water level in Ban Ve Lake dropped as quickly as this year. If it normally takes about 2 hours to go from the commune to the district center, now it takes 3 hours," said Mr. Giap.

In addition, according to Mr. Giap, the low water level in Ban Ve Lake also causes many difficulties for households raising fish in cages on this lake. To avoid fish dying, they are forced to continuously move the cages to the middle of the lake, following the falling water level.

Boats could not move so people had to go out in the mud.

Mr. Ta Huu Hung, Director of Ban Ve Hydropower Company, said that after many water releases to combat drought in the downstream area, the water in Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir has dropped to an alarming level, nearing the dead water level.

In the second half of June 2023 and the end of the dry season, if the weather continues to be extremely hot, the downstream of the Ca River will experience a shortage of water supply to the downstream and the risk of not being able to supply enough electricity to the national grid.

Meanwhile, in previous years, Ban Ve Hydropower Plant only needed to discharge 150 m3/second for all pumping stations along the river to operate, but this year, the main branches of Lam River, such as Nam Mo River, Hieu River... are also experiencing severe drought, so Ban Ve Hydropower Plant had to increase the discharge to 200 m3/second for the pumping stations to get water for agricultural production.

Risk of drought, water shortage, saltwater intrusion

Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh, Head of Nghe An Irrigation Sub-Department, said that the 2023 Summer-Autumn crop is facing the risk of drought and difficulties in irrigation water sources.

Nghe An province has 959 lakes and dams managed by the locality, however, up to now, no lake or dam is full of water, 156 lakes and dams have a capacity of less than 70% of the design capacity, 765 lakes and dams have a capacity of 40-70% of the design capacity, and 38 lakes and dams have a capacity of 20-30% of the design capacity.

The whole province has 102 lakes managed by irrigation units, of which 5 lakes are full of water, 25 lakes have a capacity >70% of the design capacity, 26 lakes have a capacity of 50-70% of the design capacity, and 46 lakes have a capacity <50% of the design capacity.

Water level of Ban Ve hydroelectric reservoir is at its lowest since operation.

According to the forecast information of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the El Nino phenomenon (warm phase) is likely to appear in the second half of summer 2023 with a probability of about 80-85%; In June 2023, the average temperature will be 0.50C higher than the average of many years; from July to September 2023, the average temperature will be 0.5-1.00C higher than the average of many years, the flow to Ban Ve hydropower reservoir tends to be 35-38% lower than the average of many years.

“With the current water resources situation, the water level of Ban Ve reservoir is very low and from the above meteorological and hydrological forecast information, water supply for people's lives and agricultural production in the Summer-Autumn crop of 2023 in the middle and late dry season of 2023 will face difficulties, the risk of drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion may occur early and widely,” said Mr. Thanh.

According to the plan for irrigation, drainage and water supply area for the Summer-Autumn crop 2023 of Nghe An province is 109,718.5 hectares, of which rice area is 81,534.6 hectares, vegetable area of ​​all kinds is 7,812.9 hectares, source area is 17,048.1 hectares, aquaculture is 1,139.9 hectares.

Water regulation chart to combat drought downstream in the dry season. Photo: Ban Ve Hydropower Company .

To overcome the drought situation and proactively provide irrigation water for the 2023 Summer-Autumn - Winter-Spring crop, Nghe An irrigation sector has implemented many solutions. Specifically, reviewing the water source situation; Developing drought-proof irrigation plans for each region and each project and implementing them when drought and water shortage occur; Arranging production structures suitable to water source capacity, avoiding planting in areas that do not ensure proactive water sources throughout the crop...

In addition, Nghe An Irrigation Department will coordinate and work with the hydropower companies: Ban Ve, Khe Bo, Chi Khe... to ensure water discharge to meet the water demand for production and people's lives in the downstream area.

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/nghe-an-dung-truoc-nguy-co-han-han-dien-rong-cuoc-song-bi-dao-lon-a613705.html