Phan Binh Minh, deputy head of the management board of the Vung Anh Economic Zone, said.

Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister asked the provincial authorities to seek ways to mobilize funds to accelerate the construction progress of the reservoir to have it operational by 2014, Phan Binh Minh, deputy head of the management board of the Vung Anh Economic Zone, said.

The reservoir is expected to ensure water supply for thermo-power plants and the Formosa steel complex project which is being developed in the province, Minh told the Daily.

The Rao Tro Reservoir began construction six months ago but the scheme has fallen behind schedule due to capital shortage, he said, adding this has worried project owners of other schemes in need of large volumes of water in the province.

According to the management board of the Vung Ang Economic Zone, the reservoir covers a total area of 2,000 hectares and is 35 kilometers from the steel project. Costing VND3 trillion in total investment capital, it has a designed capacity of 162.4 million cubic meters of water.

It is expected the reservoir when put into operation will provide water for local industrial projects, with around 170,000 cubic meters of water daily for the Formosa project alone in the first phase and 320,000 cubic meters in the next phase.

A representative of Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Limited Co. said his firm had scaled up the project’s capacity to 22.7 million tons of steel products annually. As such, total investment capital of the scheme increases to US$20 billion for the two phases from the initial US$15 billion.

The main components of the complex include six steel furnaces, a 1,600 MW coal-fired thermal power plant and Son Duong Port with annual handling capacity of 30 million tons.

Ha Tinh now has Song Tri and Kim Son reservoirs supplying water for local irrigation systems and industrial production. With the presence of the Formosa steel project, local water supply will fail to meet the demand, especially in the dry season.