Fuse dam technology optimizes flood discharge

On July 5, in Hanoi, the Department of Water Resources Management (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), in coordination with Vinci Construction Group (France), organized a workshop to introduce the fuse dam technology - Hydroplus System, which allows reducing the impact of climate change to create opportunities for exchange and research for agencies and experts in this field.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Linh Ngoc said that in the current context, when climate change impacts the environment as well as human living conditions are increasingly large, applying reasonable solutions to minimize the impacts of climate change has become an urgent issue.

With large water storage capacity, reservoirs play a huge role in regulating downstream flows when there are unusual climate changes affecting water resources in river basins. One of the effective solutions that has been implemented in the world is to build fuse dams to increase the water storage capacity of reservoirs, ensure dam safety and control river water flow downstream of reservoirs to reduce the impact of climate change on water resources in rivers.

At the workshop, the expert on fuse dam technology - Hydroplus system (France) said that this is a technology to increase the water reserves of reservoirs and optimize the operating capacity of water discharge gates; automatic discharge gate system, a system consisting of connected and unrelated parts, when there is a sudden flood, the dam gate will open sequentially according to the overflow water level.

Economical and quick to install, this non-mechanical lifting device is suitable for future dams as well as existing structures and requires little maintenance. In particular, this technology is emission-free and contributes to sustainable development, consuming no other form of energy than the natural force of water.

In fact, in recent years, unusual phenomena of climate and weather have occurred continuously. The dry season has been getting longer and longer, droughts causing water shortages have occurred widely and continuously during the dry season from 2008 to present, not only in the Central region, the Central Highlands, the Northern mountainous region but also in the Mekong Delta.

The dry season water volume in many regions (from the North Central region to the Mekong Delta) is reduced (forecasted to decrease from 2.3% to 16% by 2020). In the rainy season, floods increase in all rivers in the country (forecasted to increase from 2.3-5.4% by 2020).

Rising sea levels lead to flooding in coastal areas; increased saltwater intrusion in estuaries and coastal plains; erosion and sedimentation, changing the natural and ecological balance, seriously affecting coastal areas.

At the same time, it also increases flooding in the delta, millions of hectares of coastal areas may be submerged, hundreds of hectares of mangrove forests may be lost, and coastal wetland ecosystems are deeply affected.

Aquatic ecosystems, aquatic resources and fisheries, life, activities, and construction works of coastal residents have also changed for the worse.

Currently, the country has about 2,900 irrigation and hydroelectric reservoirs with a capacity of 200,000 m3 or more in operation, under construction or planned, with a total capacity of over 65 billion m3.

Of these, 2,100 lakes are in operation with a total capacity of more than 34 billion m3; 240 lakes are under construction with a total capacity of more than 28 billion m3, and over 510 lakes have been planned with a total capacity of nearly 4 billion m3.

Hydroelectric reservoirs alone have a total capacity of about 56 billion m3 of water (accounting for 86% of the total water storage capacity of reservoirs). River basins with large reservoir capacities are the Red River (about 30 billion m3); Dong Nai River (over 10 billion m3); Se San River (nearly 3.5 billion m3); Ma River, Ca River, Huong River, Vu Gia - Thu Bon River and Srepok River (with a total reservoir capacity of each basin from 2 billion m3 to 3 billion m3)./.

According to (TTXVN) - VT