Responsibility in reforestation?

(Baonghean) - The massive development of hydropower plants, mostly of small capacity, in Nghe An province is significantly affecting the ecological environment, people's lives and production. Meanwhile, many hydropower projects are behind schedule, have stopped construction and have had their licenses revoked, posing a problem: It is necessary to continue reviewing and evaluating to improve the quality of planning for hydropower projects, in order to minimize the impacts and consequences that may occur.

Error from planning

Nghe An is a province with potential for hydropower development with a large river system, large basins, high terrain slopes, and a fairly large average annual rainfall. According to planning data, the province has 44 small and medium hydropower projects with a capacity of 1,411.65 MW that can be exploited and call for investment in construction until 2015. After consideration, the Provincial People's Committee has proposed and the Ministry of Industry and Trade has agreed to review and remove from the planning 21 small-scale projects (including 16 projects with a capacity of less than 3 MW) that do not ensure investment efficiency. The removal of 21 small hydropower projects not only demonstrates the determination of the Provincial People's Committee but also partly shows the weakness of the authorities from the planning stage, planning appraisal to the management stage, including the responsibility of the approving and licensing units and individuals. The current "chaos" of small hydropower projects has systemic errors from the planning stage to implementation.

To establish approved projects, enterprises have to spend a lot of time, money and effort but still have to bear all the risks due to mistakes from planning and appraisal agencies. Many experts believe that there needs to be a strong enough solution to clarify the causes, draw profound lessons to limit losses and waste for people, businesses and society. At the macro level, it is necessary to research, review and amend regulations on methods, processes and procedures for establishing and appraising environmental impact assessment reports accordingly, so that there is a basis for more careful calculation each time we want to deploy the construction of additional hydropower projects.

With 31 remaining projects, currently only 26 projects have investment policies. Of which, 8 projects have been put into operation with a total generating capacity of 638.5 MW, including: Ban Ve, Ban Coc, Sao Va, Nam Mo, Hua Na, Khe Bo, Ban Canh. In addition to the above projects, many projects are behind schedule; even have not started construction, affecting the lives of people in the areas of "suspended" projects with many consequences. The reason is that the environmental impacts have not been fully assessed and the capacity of the investors is still limited. Typically, the Song Quang and Chau Thon hydropower projects invested by Son Vu Energy Development Joint Stock Company in Chau Thon commune, Que Phong district. Both of these projects started construction in 2007 but have been suspended for 3 years now.

Song Quang Hydropower Project (Chau Thon, Que Phong) had its investment license revoked.

At the scene, Chau Thon Hydropower Plant located in Na Puc village (Chau Thon) has only completed the public road, while Song Quang Hydropower Plant in Quanh village (Chau Thon) has only constructed the canal system and pressure tank, especially because the high mountain has been leveled without any embankment, creating a great risk of landslides. Mr. Truong Minh Cuong, Vice Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee, shared: We should stop developing hydropower in the district at the current level. Many units have also come here to ask for a survey, but the district does not agree. The district's viewpoint is that it does not want more hydropower in the area.

In addition to the above two projects, other hydropower projects in Que Phong such as Nhan Hac hydropower project in Que Son commune have also stopped construction since the end of 2010, other projects have only stopped at the planning survey level but have not been built yet. This situation is not only happening in Que Phong, because according to the report of the Department of Industry and Trade, the whole province has 6 projects that have started but are currently stopped; 2 projects with a capacity of 57 MW have been granted investment certificates but have not started yet, 3 projects have not yet identified investors.

Consequences

According to regulations, when implementing an investment project, the investor is required to prepare an environmental impact assessment report. However, this process has not been thoroughly considered by the investor. On the other hand, the work of environmental restoration and protection has been neglected by the investor. Most investors have not yet made annual environmental quality monitoring reports according to the approved environmental protection project. Periodic reports on the generation and management of hazardous waste have not been fully implemented.

Mr. Ho Sy Dung - Head of the Department of Environmental Protection (Department of Natural Resources and Environment) assessed: "When constructing a hydropower project, the ecological environment will certainly be affected, depleting aquatic resources, changing the flow, and changing the habitat of parasitic species. In the flood season, when the flood needs to be cut, they release the flood, and on the contrary, in the dry season, when there is a need for water to regulate irrigation, they block the dam, causing the downstream area to dry up and waterway transport to be affected. Currently, the environmental impact assessment work has only stopped at the issue of forecasting, when the hydropower project is in operation, it has not been implemented. And mainly the upstream area is assessed, while the downstream area has not been specifically assessed due to the large basin".

In addition, the authorities have not really fulfilled their responsibilities when assessing and appraising the environmental impact reports of projects, affecting the ecological environment of the project area. As a particularly valuable nature reserve that needs to be protected, however, within the Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, there are 7 hydropower projects. The most magnificent in scale is the Hua Na Hydropower Project (180MW), which is smaller than the following plants: Song Quang, Ban Coc, Sao Va, Nhan Hac, Tien Phong, Nam Pong. The construction of plants has been affecting the diversity of the Nature Reserve.

Mr. Nguyen Danh Hung, Director of Pu Hoat Nature Reserve said: “The construction of hydropower plants is necessary, but only large hydropower plants. Small hydropower plants do not bring much profit, but they also change the ecosystem in the reserve, causing a loss of forest area. Opening roads complicates deforestation, making forest management more difficult. Even Sao Va waterfall is a highlight of Que Phong district, but Sao Va Hydropower Plant blocks the water flow, polluting the waterfall area and losing the famous natural landscape.”

To implement the hydropower project, thousands of households had to relocate to new places. It is undeniable that the project has brought about changes in infrastructure, transportation, and electricity, but people's lives have not really improved. The most obvious impact on people's lives is the Hua Na Hydropower Project, with a capacity of 180 MW located in the two communes of Dong Van and Thong Thu (Que Phong). To serve the project, 1,402 households were affected, of which 1,362 households with 5,362 people had to move. Up to now, the relocation of households out of the reservoir area has been completed, but the work of allocating land for production to people is still too slow. Settling down but not cultivating, lack of land, no jobs leads to poverty, unemployment, and increasing social evils. Unable to bear the poverty, more than 500 people from nearly 200 families returned home and set up camp right next to the lake to make a living, despite the helplessness of the government and authorities. In May 2012, the Ban Ve Hydropower Plant stored water, causing landslides and silting up the Nam Non River, affecting the traffic and environment of the people living in the Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir.

Before the project was implemented, the assessment of the impact of water resources on the downstream area was not done well, so it affected the production activities of the people. In Tien Phong commune, since April 2010, when the Sao Va Hydropower Project (Que Phong), with a capacity of 3MW located on Nam Viec stream, came into operation, causing more than 70 hectares of agricultural production area of ​​5 villages to always face a shortage of water for production, especially in the winter-spring crop. Mr. Vo Khanh Toan - Chairman of Tien Phong Commune People's Committee said: "Since the Sao Va Hydropower Dam blocked the flow of Nam Viec stream, water has been regulated irregularly, causing a shortage of water in the downstream. Lack of water has also led to lower rice productivity than before. Faced with this situation, people have to use pumps to pump water into the fields for irrigation, which is very expensive. 11 hectares of rice fields of Dan 2 villagers have to be converted to sugarcane cultivation due to lack of water for production".

To serve hydropower projects, more than 1,000 hectares of forest land have been reclaimed and converted to other uses. According to the Forestry Department, so far only 15 projects of 9 investors have completed procedures to request conversion with an area of ​​more than 722 hectares, of which more than 331 hectares are forested. According to Decree 05/2008/ND-CP of the Government, for investment projects that must exploit forests to clear the land and require reforestation but do not have the conditions, they can pay a replacement fee at the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund. However, only 5 investors have paid more than 760 million VND to convert the purpose of using forest land, equivalent to about 50 hectares of forest.

The payment of compensation for forest planting obligations does not make the public worry about the future consequences of climate change. The consequences of both losing forests and not planting replacement forests have made floods and landslides in the downstream areas increasingly severe. Currently, the Provincial People's Committee has issued Decision 5318/QD-UBND dated November 8, 2013 to allocate this fund to provide non-refundable support for production forest planting projects according to Decision 147/2007/QD-TTg, the Forest Protection and Development Project for the period 2012-2020 has been implemented. According to Decree 05/2008/ND-CP of the Government, it is not wrong, but clearly, the effectiveness that this fund brings will certainly not be high.

It is undeniable that hydropower projects are effective for energy security and the development of Nghe An in particular and the country in general. However, with the negative effects that hydropower has brought about in our province in recent times, the relevant agencies need to have a comprehensive view in hydropower planning based on the environmental and sustainable development perspective. Carefully calculate the gains and losses to continue to adjust the planning appropriately, strongly eliminate small hydropower projects, and make a "modest" contribution to energy security and budget revenue. Only then, the implementation of hydropower projects according to the Provincial Power Development Plan for the period 2011 - 2015, taking into account 2020, will ensure effectiveness and achieve the goals set out in the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress. Along with that, it is necessary to regularly monitor and track the power generation operation process of hydropower projects to ensure full implementation of commitments, assess environmental impacts, especially the reasonable regulation of water flow, to avoid the situation where projects simultaneously store water, causing drought; on the contrary, if they simultaneously release water, there is a risk of flooding in downstream areas.

Pham Bang