Nghe An focuses on renovating irrigation works to serve production.

PV:Can you share about the current status of Nghe An's irrigation system to see if it meets the requirements of production and people's lives in the province?

Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh:Nghe An currently has 1,061 reservoirs, including 55 large dams and reservoirs; 220 medium dams and reservoirs and 786 small dams and reservoirs. Of these, enterprises manage 101 reservoirs; the rest are managed by grassroots irrigation organizations and individuals.

Small irrigation works, scattered throughout the province, have been degraded or are no longer suitable for actual conditions due to the long construction period. On the other hand, the system of works is mostly not synchronized, leading to many difficulties in management, exploitation and use, low efficiency and high costs.

A degraded reservoir in Nghia Dan district. Photo: Van Truong

Some lakes and dams were built long ago by manual methods. Over time, affected by weather, exploitation and operation, lack of funding for maintenance and repair, they are now seriously degraded, their capacity is reduced, water seeps through the body, the culverts are damaged, in the flood season the reservoir safety is not guaranteed, in the dry season the lake is exhausted and cannot provide irrigation water for agricultural production.

Since 2000, 374 lakes have been repaired and upgraded. Worryingly, of the remaining 688 lakes, 70 are severely damaged, degraded, and at risk of being unsafe. In particular, with small reservoirs, due to low revenue from irrigation fees, management and repair costs are limited, only minor repairs are made and cannot meet demand.

The canal system, especially drainage canals, not only over 1,000 km have not been concreted, but are still earthen canals with very poor drainage capacity; but even the drainage canals that have been concreted have seriously degraded due to many reasons.

Dien Thanh culvert has been upgraded to serve production and people's lives. Photo: Phu Huong

Before this year's rainy season, along with the investment in repair and upgrading of a number of projects, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also issued an official dispatch, urging localities and units to conduct status inspections, prepare and submit plans for approval.disaster preventionirrigation works, ensuring safety of works during the rainy and flood season.

In recent times, the operation and protection of the project has been seriously implemented. However, due to the complex developments of natural disasters, rains and storms, the project system has been severely affected, further degraded and damaged.

Leaders of the Irrigation Department and the Central working delegation inspected the safety of lakes and dams in Nam Dan district. Photo: Phu Huong

PV:The rainy season is now at its final stage, however, in recent times, due to floods, many works have been severely affected. So what should we continue to do so that the irrigation system in the area can meet the requirements of production and people's lives in the coming time, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh:This year, before the flood season, the province has allocated 50 billion VND to overcome the consequences of natural disasters in 2021 from the central budget allocation; 56.6 billion VND from the provincial budget reserve in 2022 is allocated to localities to maintain dike items and repair weak works.

However, the projects still have many limitations and potential risks, especially after experiencing many heavy rains and floods, lakes, dams, and pumping stations have collapsed and been damaged. In particular, the canal system is submerged in water, eroded, and filled up a lot; if not repaired and remedied soon, it will be very difficult to serve the upcoming spring crop.

Dredging mud and silt from the pumping station after floods in Thanh Chuong district. Photo: Phu Huong

To protect the works and ensure irrigation for production and people's lives, localities and units must continue to seriously carry out the work of protecting the safety of the works, repairing damages, especially in key parts of the works such as spillways, culverts under the dam, gates, opening and closing machines; well implement the "4 on-site" motto, ensuring suitability and feasibility for each region.

In the immediate future, it is necessary to mobilize internal resources, focus on dredging sediment in canals to ensure water supply for production, and dredge large volumes of sedimented mud and sand.

During storms, electric motors and machines get wet and damaged. They need to be checked, repaired, and tested to ensure they are ready for irrigation.

Canals were dredged during the "All people join forces to do irrigation" campaign. Photo: Nghe An Newspaper

With the dam system, although it is still raining, the storm season has come to an end and there are no more heavy rains forecast. Small damages need to be repaired immediately, otherwise major damage will occur.

PV:In the long term, to improve the capacity to serve production, people's lives as well as ensure construction safety, what solutions do we need?

Mr. Nguyen Truong Thanh:For the lake system, dams and key projects such as Nghi Quang and Ben Thuy sluices, it is necessary to build programs and projects to invest in upgrading and repairing in a systematic manner, because these are projects that play an extremely important role, but many projects have degraded and are severely damaged.

In the province, there are nearly 6,000 km of irrigation canals. Through the campaigns to build irrigation works and the movement of the State and the people working together, from 2001 to 2007, about 4,800 km were concreted. However, after a long time of use and being frequently submerged in water, most of them have been damaged and broken. It is necessary to have a comprehensive overall investigation, to propose new mechanisms and policies to invest in repair and upgrade to meet the requirements.

To implement the legal regulations on dam and reservoir safety management as prescribed, a huge amount of funding is needed for the construction management units to implement. Therefore, there needs to be a support mechanism from the Central Government or other budget sources in addition to the revenue from irrigation fee compensation. Because the irrigation fee compensation source of many localities and units is currently not enough to ensure the maintenance and repair of construction safety.

Farmers in Nam Dan district focus on planting spring rice. Photo: Phu Huong

Currently, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is requesting the province and the Central Government to support investment in equipment and facilities serving the management of reservoir projects, such as hydrometeorological monitoring systems, dam inspection, reservoir operation and maintenance procedures, helping to improve the capacity to ensure the safety of dams and irrigation reservoirs, ensuring safe operation of projects during the rainy and flood season; as well as being proactive in relocation, resettlement and production.

At the same time, provide financial and technical support for training and coaching to improve management and exploitation capacity of irrigation works.

In particular, superiors need to issue specific guidance documents on the following contents: Developing emergency response plans, clearly specifying which projects need to develop flood maps for downstream areas, thereby reducing construction time and costs, so that localities can implement them; establishing operating procedures for reservoirs with free overflow; constructing projects in the protection corridor of irrigation works, such as solar power projects in the reservoir area, in terms of reservoir surface coverage...

PV:Thank you!