Inadequacies in flood control in colored areas

(Baonghean) - Nghe An currently has over 20,000 hectares of vegetable and color production, which plays an extremely important role in the province's agricultural production. However, for many reasons, the irrigation system for color areas has not been properly invested and still has many shortcomings. Not only does it cause difficulties in arranging seasonal production, but every year, the damage caused by flooding and drought in color areas amounts to tens of billions of VND.

People in hamlet 17, Nghi Thuan commune (Nghi Loc) drain water to replant corn that died due to flooding.

After several days of rain (from September 13 to 14), two acres of corn planted for nearly a month by Ms. Le Thi Phuong's family in Hamlet 17, Nghi Trung Commune (Nghi Loc) were completely lost. While using a hoe to drain the water, Ms. Phuong said: "Before the rain, the corn was green and had 6 leaves. But after being flooded for 3 days, on the afternoon of September 14, the water receded and the corn all died. I drained the water, waited for the sun to come out and the soil to dry before I could sow again..."

The recent heavy rains not only caused the summer-autumn rice fields in Nghi Trung commune, which are starting to dry out and are expected to be harvested in just 10 days, to almost completely disappear, but also caused severe damage to the commune's winter crop area.

Mr. Tran Hai Duong - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: The main drainage canal in the commune is Rao Truong canal, running from Vinh Airport, through Nghi Lien, Nghi An and Nghi Long communes, to Nghi Xa and then down to Nghi Quang bara to drain to the sea. Although it is the main and important canal, this drainage canal has only been concreted for more than 1 km at both ends of Nghi Trung commune, the remaining middle section is still an earthen canal. In the past few rainy days, the commune had to rent a machine costing tens of millions of VND to scoop up water hyacinth from other communes that had flooded the canal, blocking the flow.

Nghi Loc is one of the localities with the largest crop area in the province, with over 4,000 hectares, of which peanuts are nearly 3,000 hectares and vegetables of all kinds are over 1,000 hectares.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quang - Head of the District's Agriculture Department, in the area there are only a few communes with high and easily drained land, the rest are almost all communes in concentrated land areas of the district, located east of National Highway 1A such as Nghi Long, Nghi Trung, Nghi Thuan... all encounter many difficulties in drainage, not only in winter crop production but also in spring crop.

After 2000, from the project to drain the flood in the province's colored area, all the main canals in the colored area such as Nha Bien canal, Nha Na canal, East Nghi Phong canal, West Nghi Phong canal... were basically expanded, however, only about 10% of the length in the key locations has been concreted, the rest is still earthen canal.

Excavators are stuck removing water fern due to flooding on the main drainage canal passing through several communes of Nghi Loc and Vinh city.

In Dien Chau district, there are 55 km of main drainage canals for the district's colored areas. Up to now, from the sources of projects, in addition to the branch canal system, most of which are still earthen canals, about 40% of the length has been concreted, only on important routes. The rest are only bridges and culverts on the canals and dredging.

Mr. Cao Van Thai, - District Agriculture Department said: Most of the communes in the colored areas have very difficult drainage, especially in Dien Thinh commune, there are two canals flowing into the sea but currently they cannot drain due to heavy silting, every year in the rainy season, not only the fields but also the residential areas are flooded. Besides, the estuaries to the sea are often silted up, because in the dry season, the sea sand rises and blocks the estuaries, while the number of these estuaries is too large to be dredged.

The province currently has 800 km of drainage canals serving the colored areas, of which only 200 km (mainly main canals) have been solidified, the rest are internal earthen canals. Due to untimely capital disbursement, the progress of irrigation projects in colored areas has not met the plan, the ability to drain water is low, the drainage canal system is not synchronized, so it limits the work of drainage.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Van - Deputy Head of the Provincial Irrigation Department, to solve the shortcomings in irrigation in vegetable production, in the long term, it is necessary to plan and build more small irrigation works, especially in areas with large-scale fields and concentrated production areas.

At the same time, local authorities need to get involved, propagate and mobilize people to actively participate in the campaign to build more effective internal irrigation.

However, while the uniform drainage system is still difficult, the large capital is not enough, technical solutions need to be considered. Some experts in the agricultural sector recommend that to improve the efficiency of color production in poor drainage conditions, some localities need to advance the crop calendar.

People in Dien Thanh commune uproot peanuts that died due to flooding to replant.

For the flat or hilly areas in Quynh Luu, Thanh Chuong, and Do Luong districts, it is necessary to push up the planting season from August and as soon as possible because the rains will mainly come after September 2, when the crops will be able to withstand floods.

For the Lam River area, based on the specific terrain, deep areas slow down, even low areas in Anh Son, Tan Ky... must wait until the flood is over, until October to plant to minimize damage.

Phu Huong