Downpours and water discharged by hydro-power plants in the central region has submerged hundreds of thousands of families in the lowlands, 22 people died.
In Thua Thien – Hue province, the Binh Dien and Huong Dien hydro-power plants discharged water in several consecutive days. Within one night of November 5, flood water plunged Hue city, Phu Vang and Quang Dien district.
Local people said that they have never witnessed such strange flood. “It did not rain but water gathered,” said a Hue’s citizen.
Dinh Huu Tan, Deputy General Director of Binh Dien hydro-power plant, explained that by November 5, the Binh Dien reservoir rose very highly, so the plant had to discharge water to protect the dam. Tan confirmed that the plant strictly obeyed the instruction of the Flood and Storm Control Steering Board of Thua Thien – Hue province.
Phan Thanh Hung, from the local Flood and Storm Control Steering Board of Thua Thien – Hue, said that in the two previous floods, these reservoirs helped curb flood but this time, as flood was too high, they had to discharge water. “We had announced local people on television. In the long run, we will seek measures to better control flood,” Hung said.
In Quang Nam province, Tranh River hydro-power plant has discharged water for a month but on November 7, six doors were opened at the same time to discharge water at the speed of 3,500 to 5,000 cu.m per second.
Dinh Van Thu, Vice Chairman of Quang Nam province, said that heavy rains and water discharged by reservoirs have caused serious losses for the lowlands. Hundreds of thousands of households in Nong Son, Dien Ban, Duy Xuyen districts and Hoi An ancient town are now flooded.
“Flooding came very fast so local residents could not respond. Plenty of food, cattle and poultry were swept away,” said Le Ngoc Trung, Vice Chairman of Nong Son district, Quang Nam province.
Trung said that Tranh River hydro-power plant and the Quang Nam Flood and Storm Control Steering Board used to send faxes to inform Nong Son district authorities about the Tranh River reservoir’s water discharge only 3-4 hours in advance. That time is too short for local people to respond to emergency.
In Phu Yen province, local government and local people are also upset with the Ba Ha hydro-power plant. On November 8, this plant discharged water at the speed of 1,400 cu.m per second while Hinh River reservoir also discharged water at the speed of 200 cu.m per second. Consequently, many communes in Tuy An, Dong Xuan and Tay Hoa are flooded now. Many key roads are also submerged. Le Van Truc, Vice Chairman of Phu Yen province, said that Ba Ha hydro-power plant only informed of its water discharge two hours in advance. Truc said Phu Yen authorities asked the plant to notify the province about its water discharge plan more early but nothing changed.
Nguyen Lan Chau, former deputy director of the Central Hydro-meteorological Forecast Center, said while drafting the regulations on the operation of Ba Ha reservoir, many people proposed that hydro-power plants have to notify local government about their water discharge plan at least six hours in advance.
“However, it is a big challenge for experts to forecast rains and floods in the central region so finally, it is decided that these reservoirs would announce their water discharge plans only two hours in advance,” Lan said.
According to the Central Steering Board for Floods and Storm Control, rains and floods from November 5 have so far killed at least 22 people, injured 2 other, and caused 2 others to be missing. The dead victims include 17 in Quang Nam, 3 in Da Nang and 1 in Thua Thien-Hue and 1 in Quang Ngai.
Thousands of houses have been damaged and 659 hectares of rice and 2,850 hectares of other crops have been submerged. Many roads in downtown Hue city in Thua Thien-Hue Province were submerged over 1 m under water while many areas in Huong Tra District was plunged 2 m under water.
In Quang Nam, floods caused a landslide at the Lo Xo Pass, sweeping thousands of cubic meters of soil and rock and blocking traffic in Phuoc Son, Tay Giang and Dong Giang districts. Another serious landslide occurred in Nam Tra My District and many roads in other districts were heavily submerged. About 73,000 houses in this province are now under floodwater.
36,000 houses In Thua Thien-Hue and 24 wards and communes in Da Nang have been submerged. In Da Nang, 3 fishing boats have sunk.
In Binh Dinh, thousands of houses were submerged and because of blocked traffic, 25,000 students haven’t been able to go to school and nearly 10,000 workers couldn’t go to work.
Thanh Van