Proactive drought prevention plan

(Baonghean) - This year, up to December, Nghe An has not suffered any storms, and there have been almost no floods. That also means that the water reserves in the dams are at an alarmingly low level. Accordingly, the spring drought is forecast to occur earlier and more severely than in previous years.

The North Nghe An Irrigation Company manages 17 large dams with capacities ranging from 1.5 million to 75 million m3, providing water for production and daily life in the four districts of Do Luong, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau and Quynh Luu. While the water level on the rivers is still at a normal level, the water level in the dams is alarmingly low. In previous years, after the end of the rainy season, all the dams managed by the unit were filled with water. However, this year, up to now, only 10 dams are full of water, the remaining dams have not reached their design capacity, including large dams such as Vuc Mau, Ve Vung, Dinh Du... "Not only that, due to upgrading and repairing, two dams, Ba Tuy (capacity of 4 million m3) and Nha Tro (capacity of 4.5 million m3), have now been drained of water.

According to the plan, the upgrading of these two lakes will be completed by August 2015, waiting for the rainy season to store water for production in 2016. That also means that in the spring and summer-autumn crop production in 2015, 570 hectares of Yen Thanh and Quynh Luu districts will have no water for production. Except for about 30 hectares of Nha Tro lake area (Yen Thanh) that will be able to grow rice thanks to the irrigation support from Bau Da lake, the remaining areas will have to be converted to grow other drought-resistant crops such as corn, potatoes, and other crops" - Mr. Le Van Cuong - Deputy Director of Bac Nghe An Irrigation Company shared.

Quynh Luu 2 High School started irrigation work. Photo: Van Truong

In that situation, the company has a plan to submit to the Provincial People's Committee to close the water supply in two phases to repair all canals and pumps, and at the same time plan to dredge the entrance and main canal of Do Luong to ensure sufficient water level and bring water flow from Lam River into the system. At the same time, Van Trang 1, Van Trang 2 and Minh My pumping stations are being urgently repaired before December 5 to promptly serve spring crop production. Currently, the unit is developing a water supply plan, with an expected area for spring crop production of 30,000 hectares. Particularly for 17 dams, develop a very reasonable and scientific irrigation plan according to the "shallow, exposed, and dried" method to ensure maximum water savings in the winter-spring crop, reserving water for summer-autumn production in drought conditions, with many unusual weather developments like the present, at the same time develop a drought prevention plan to respond when necessary, such as using field pumps, operating drainage sluices according to the correct process to prevent salinity, retain fresh water...

As a lowland mountainous area, Thanh Chuong has been experiencing severe droughts for many years. In the district, in addition to the five large dams managed by the District Irrigation Enterprise, namely Cau Cau, Cua Ong, Mu Sy, and Song Ro, there are also 124 small dams managed by the locality. Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Head of the District Agriculture Department said: Currently, although the water source on the dams is not as good as every year, the water is still basically good for land preparation and spring planting. However, if the weather continues to be dry and there is no rain after Tet, the possibility of drought occurring during the rice standing, earing, and flowering stages is very high. With the recent campaign to mobilize the entire population to do irrigation, all communes have focused on dredging canals, clearing the flow, and building embankments to retain water. In the production plan, Thanh Chuong also always has a plan to use water economically, avoiding loss and waste of irrigation water.

According to the synthesis of the provincial Irrigation Department, the total rainfall in 2014 up to this point is extremely low. The average rainfall is only 1,270 ly, 360 ly lower than the average of the same period in many years and 790 ly lower than the same period in 2013. Particularly worrying is the total rainfall in this year's rainy season is less than previous years. “According to calculations, the total rainfall in the 2014 rainy season from July to November 2014 was only 837 liters, 708 liters lower than the rainfall in the 2013 rainy season, or only 54%. This is very worrying, because the amount of water for production and daily life in the first half of 2015, including two particularly important production crops, the spring crop and the summer-autumn crop, all depend on this rainy season. The drought situation is forecasted to be very severe,” said Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh, Deputy Head of the Provincial Irrigation Department.

If every year, in September, October, November, Nghe An continuously suffers from big storms, accompanied by floods, this year, there are no storms in our province, heavy rains only occur a few times but short and insignificant. Therefore, if last year, up to this time, we still had 41 lakes managed by enterprises with over 70% capacity or full of water, this year there are only 17 lakes. Particularly with the system of locally managed dams, although no district has reported that the lakes are dry, most of them have not reached the design water level, while in previous years, after the end of the rainy season, the lakes were full of water. On Lam River, the water level is still at the design level, but according to many years of experience and especially the rain situation this year, in the dry season from March to July next year, the river water level will drop very low. If Khe Bo and Ban Ve Hydropower plants store water for electricity generation and do not release enough water, the Lam River basin will be in extreme difficulty.

In order to proactively prevent and combat drought and saltwater intrusion, ensuring water supply for production, localities must soon develop water supply plans, based on the ability to balance sufficient water sources to arrange a reasonable crop structure. In highland areas where irrigation water sources cannot be balanced throughout the crop, they should switch to planting drought-tolerant crops. At the same time, strictly manage water sources, prevent leakage and loss, use water sources effectively as well as strengthen scientific irrigation measures, and save water for rice and upland crops. These are considered necessary recommendations for all crop seasons, however, this year the drought is forecast to occur earlier and more severely, so the use of water economically and reasonably must be strictly followed.

Continuing the campaign of the whole people to join the irrigation work, to prepare conditions for water supply for production, especially the spring crop of 2015, localities need to continue to organize dredging of canal systems, water intake gates, irrigation pumping stations, ponds, wells, clearing the flow, building temporary dams to prevent salinity, installing water intake equipment for proactive operation, ensuring adequate conditions for water supply, ventilation from the source to the field, taking advantage of all water sources for production and daily life. At the same time, organize the repair of works, dams, internal irrigation, continue to implement the program of solidifying canals, building field traffic combined with land conversion and building new rural areas. However, in this process, localities that build new or renew canals must have appropriate measures to retain water, minimize leakage and loss, causing waste of irrigation water.

Phu Huong