Expectations for the Hoang Mai River salinity prevention sluice project

(Baonghean) - Currently, people in some areas of Hoang Mai Town are suffering from a serious water shortage because the Hoang Mai River is saline and cannot be used for daily life and production. Not only that, proactive irrigation for rice and vegetable growing areas in the area is also facing difficulties because the water source from the canal leading through Vuc Mau Lake is not enough. Therefore, the birth of the "Salt prevention and environmental improvement project on Hoang Mai River" has great significance for socio-economic development and stabilizing people's lives.

Delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Korean credit providers conducted field work in the project area.

Mr. Tran Van Tuat's household, Phu Loi 1 block, Quynh Di ward, has 2 hectares of rice fields, but for several years now, they have had to leave them fallow because the irrigation water from Hoang Mai river has been seriously contaminated with salt. Every time water is taken for irrigation, the entire newly planted rice area withers and dies. Therefore, more than 80% of the people in Quynh Di ward have proactively converted their rice growing area to nursery and aquaculture. However, proactively sourcing water for nursery and aquaculture also faces many difficulties, because most of the water source must be taken from Vuc Mau lake, and the cost of transportation is very high.

Currently, Hoang Mai Town has 35,574 households with 167,165 people in the project area (Mai Hung and Quynh Di wards), of which 3,675 households (17,620 people) use water from centralized water plants, the rest mainly use well water. However, these water sources are saline, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are locations where the water is drilled from 100m - 120m deep and still has alum water and high salinity. For many years, people in the area have had to buy fresh water from other places, every day, dozens of trucks carry fresh water to the hamlet to sell to people at prices from 25,000 - 30,000 VND/m3. The demand for water for daily life of people by 2020 in the project area is 12.4 million m3/year. According to calculations, by 2020, not only Quynh Di and Mai Hung but also people in Quynh Thien and Dai Vinh wards will have to suffer from water shortage.

In addition, with the construction of large industrial zones such as Hoang Mai 1, Hoang Mai 2, Dong Hoi... the demand for water for production is also very large. According to the calculation in the planning, the demand for water for industrial use by 2020 in the project area is 99.69 million m3/year, but the water source from Vuc Mau lake cannot provide enough. In fact, currently the downstream of Vuc Mau lake has an area of ​​155km2, of which 36km2 has been exploited to serve production by building 11 small reservoirs, the remaining area has not built a reservoir to regulate water, so it is only possible to exploit the basic flow. But the Hoang Mai River has a small slope, so it is deeply intruded by salt (to the foot of Vuc Mau Lake). Therefore, to exploit the basic flow, there is no other way but to build a salt-prevention sluice at the river mouth to supplement the water supply by a maximum of 9.5 million m3, meeting the living and production needs of people in the project area.

With that urgency, on August 29, 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Decision No. 2065/QD BNN-KH allowing the establishment of the investment project and assigning the investor to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An. During the meeting with the investor of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, Mr. Ho Ngoc Sy - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development affirmed: "The goal of the project, in addition to proactively preventing salinity, preserving freshwater, responding to climate change and rising sea levels, the construction of a salinity prevention sluice also contributes to improving the landscape, renovating the natural environment in the project area, combined with improving road traffic in the area, creating favorable conditions for trade for the people of Mai Hung ward, Quynh Di commune and neighboring areas".

Thanh Nga