Huynh Van Thang, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, spoke Thursday (11 June 2009) to dispel worries that the construction of the Dak Mi 4 Hydroelectricity Plant in Quang Nam would lead to a water shortage in the province and the central city of Da Nang. He said the deputy minister of Industry and Trade, Do Huu Hao, had concluded that the construction of the power plant would not affect the natural water supply from the Vu Gia River.

The deputy minister also said he would ask the ministry’s Energy Department to prepare a clear explanation for both localities.

Two sides to a story

Local authorities in Quang Nam’s Dai Loc and Dien Ban districts and in Da Nang have voiced concerns that the plant will leave them without enough water.

They said the plant would divert water from the Vu Gia River to the nearby Thu Bon River, instead of allowing it to flow naturally to the Quang Nam and Da Nang areas that depend on it.

Thang said the local authorities and the project’s main investor, Industrial Park & Urban Development Corporation (IDICO), had calculated the effect of the plant differently.

IDICO had only calculated the effects through 2010 while the local authorities had tried to gauge its effect through 2020. There are three million people living near the lower Vu Gia River, according to government estimates.

Pernicious precedent

Last July, a new dam went up on a tributary of the Vu Gia River to collect water for the A Vuong 1 Hydroelectricity plant, causing a drought that dried up 10,000 hectares of farmland along the river banks in Quang Nam. The move also sparked salinization of farmland in Da Nang. Five other new hydropower plants are slated to be built along the river system in the near future.

In May, the Da Nang People’s Committee told the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment that the lowlands around the Vu Gia River were already suffering a “severe shortage of water.”

Tran Van Minh, chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee, has reported to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that the Dak Mi 4 Hydropower Plant will cause three times the amount of water loss of A Vuong 1. He warned the project could spark an environmental crisis and social unrest.

Vietnam’s Vu Gia-Thu Bon river system originates in the Truong Son mountain range in the west near Laos before running through Quang Nam and Da Nang in the central region. It then flows into the East Sea. It is the lifeblood of the region, providing fresh water to a host of lowland areas and local communities.