Nghe An: Completing irrigation system, proactively responding to climate change

(Baonghean) - Climate change (CC) entails extreme weather events such as droughts and tornadoes, which severely impact production and people's lives. Building, consolidating and upgrading irrigation works is one of the solutions to minimize the negative impacts of CC.

Prioritize important projects

Nghe An has a large natural area, diverse and complex terrain, divided by systems of hills, rivers and streams; annual rainfall in the area is generally from 1,800 mm to 2,200 mm, so floods often occur, especially flash floods, landslides in mountainous areas, erosion, high tides, and strong storms in coastal plains.

In recent years, the climate change situation has become more and more obvious, droughts and floods have occurred with an increasing trend, so every year the number of irrigation works damaged and degraded is very large. Meanwhile, the need to repair and upgrade irrigation infrastructure systems requires a lot of money, but due to limited capital, many reservoirs and key dykes are of low quality, the works have not achieved the flood prevention target, so there are many potential risks of incidents such as dam breaks, dyke breaks...

Upgrading and repairing Ta Lam dike. Photo: Viet Phuong

To increase the ability to cope with adverse weather conditions, in 2014 the province approved the "Project on Building Key Infrastructure in Nghe An Province by 2020 in the field of irrigation and climate change response", which identified specific targets for irrigation and domestic water supply, drainage, and flood prevention.

Implementing the project, up to now, the irrigation system has been built, through the investment process, a fairly synchronous irrigation infrastructure system has been formed. Many projects have been completed such as the construction of Nam Dan sluice gate phase 1, the Sao River canal system phase 2, the project to repair and upgrade 30 weak reservoirs in the province; upgrade, repair and build 70 new works in mountainous areas; the project to restore and upgrade the Northern irrigation system, Khe Lai - Vuc Mau lake, WB5 natural disaster risk management...

At the same time, we are promoting projects to prevent saltwater intrusion and retain freshwater on Lam River, prevent saltwater intrusion and retain freshwater on Hoang Mai River; Nam Viec irrigation system; Lam Tra canal, and the project to build a pumping station at Nam Dan sluice. In the field of flood drainage, we have completed the Colored Area Drainage project for the three districts of Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc and are promoting the project to Upgrade the drainage system of Vach Nam - Song Bung, and the project to dredge many other canals in Quynh Luu, Nghia Dan...

Mr. Nguyen Sy Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: "The industry and localities are focusing on reviewing industry development plans, river and sea dike plans and local socio-economic development plans to adjust plans to respond to the impacts of climate change for sustainable development. Integrating multi-purpose investment, combining capital sources to build works suitable to the requirements of each region. At the same time, increasing capital sources, prioritizing all capital sources for localities to overcome consequences, improve disaster prevention and control capacity, in which priority is given to preventing flash floods, landslides on river banks and coastlines".

Proactive response in each locality

In Yen Thanh district, 16/39 communes are located in low-lying areas, about 3,500 hectares of which are frequently flooded. Currently, the district is preparing to implement the "Project to upgrade and reinforce the flood drainage system and flood protection dykes under the target program to respond to climate change and green growth". The project has a total investment of more than 217 billion VND, with the District People's Committee as the investor.

The project's goal is to drain 22,917 hectares of water, protect 43,815 households and 16,032 people in low-lying communes of the district, increase flood drainage capacity downstream; at the same time, prevent salinity, keep fresh water for 4,100 hectares of cultivated land, proactively respond to climate change and rising sea levels, and create a water supply for daily life and production.

Vuc Mau Lake spillway. Photo: Thanh Thuy

Cong Thanh is one of the communes in the project's affected area. There are 4 km of Vach Nam canal running through the area, but 1.5 km of it has been silted up, just a heavy rain of less than 100 mm can flood half of the commune's area, 700-800 hectares of land, including 300 hectares of agricultural land, for a week due to poor drainage capacity. Meanwhile, the main flood drainage and flood control system of the district is mostly naturally formed or built by local people, and has been used for a long time, so the construction items have seriously degraded. Every year, during the rainy season, rising sea levels flood and isolate many areas, destroying crops and many constructions, threatening the lives of thousands of people, many production areas are often flooded and have to be abandoned.

"Therefore, when the project is implemented, it will significantly contribute to solving these problems" - Mr. Ho Phi Hoa - Vice Chairman of Cong Thanh Commune People's Committee shared.

Through the discussion, Mr. Nguyen Sy Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development affirmed: The policy of the province and localities is to mobilize maximum resources to upgrade riverbank embankments such as Ta Lam embankment, embankments on the right bank of Lam River, 5 Nam, embankment through Thanh Chuong... to ensure the safety of works against the adverse impacts of climate change. At the same time, deploy the proposal to build new sluices to prevent salinity and retain fresh water of Mo River and Lam River to serve Vinh and Quynh Luu areas; upgrade the sea dykes of Dong Hoi, Quynh Lap and some other routes, at the same time dredge and upgrade the inland dykes, estuary dykes for the basins of Bung River, Thai River, Hoang Mai River, Cam River. Strengthen and upgrade the irrigation reservoir system.

Phu Huong