The local government decided in June to spend VND225.3 billion (US$13.2 million), more than a quarter of the province’s budget for the first half of this year, damming the Tra Khuc River, Quang Ngai’s main waterway. The plan had initially been approved in 2004 under a VND70- billion budget.

Truong Quang Viet, director of Quang Ngai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in charge of the project, said the dam was designed to cut the river off from the sea by forming a reservoir. He said the project would make the town of Quang Ngai, the provincial capital, “green and cool” even during droughts, Viet said. Parts of the river running through the town have dried up every year during the dry season.

The local government said the project aimed to keep the river full throughout the town “for tourism and recreation purposes,” and to prevent salinity and minimize groundwater pollution in areas surrounding the river’s current mouth. But residents have said that cutting the river off from the sea would only worsen salinity near the mouth, which suffers salinization throughout the dry season.

Nghia Dung Commune chief councilor Nguyen Cong Lieu said his jurisdiction was in the river mouth area and that many of his commune’s residents had objected to the dam plan.

“As fresh water will stop flowing into the sea, ocean water will penetrate further inland,” he said, adding that the livelihoods of thousands of people along the river would be “turned upside down.” He warned that underground water would be salinized as well.

Residents also worry that the dam would disrupt water flows out of Quang Ngai during the wet season, thereby increasing flooding.

Nguyen Thanh, a local resident, said the river was already “full of water” during the rainy season. Viet admitted the project had triggered some public concerns that the dam would increase flooding and ruin the town’s landscape.

Construction would begin when those concerns were resolved, he said, adding that his department would suggest canceling the project if the issues could not be redressed.

Nguyen Dinh Buu, director of an irrigation management unit under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the Tra Khuc River dam would not generate any social or economic effects. The dam, if built, could only ease salinization troubles from its position upstream, he said.