Yen Thanh district is addressing water shortages to support spring crop production.

(Baonghean.vn) -For nearly a month now, up to 50 hectares of spring rice in Van Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, have been without water. This is unprecedented in this region.

On the afternoon of April 27th, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung, Chairman of the Van Thanh Commune Agricultural Cooperative, stated: Van Thanh Commune has 140 hectares of rice fields in hamlets 10, 11, 3, and parts of hamlets 2A, 2B, and 1, all dependent on water from the Ve Vung dam (Dong Thanh). Previously, this entire area had sufficient irrigation water. However, recently, about 50 hectares have suddenly lacked irrigation water, with the entire irrigation canal system from Dong Thanh commune to Van Thanh drying up. The water shortage has lasted for 22 days. In particular, the recent intense heatwaves have caused the soil to crack, hindering rice growth. With the spring rice crop currently in the flowering stage, if irrigation continues for another 5 days, the entire 50 hectares of rice in Van Thanh will be completely lost. We have reported this matter to the Yen Thanh Irrigation Enterprise, the Department of Agriculture, and the District People's Committee several days ago, but it remains unresolved.

According to Mr. Hung, the reason why Van Thanh commune lacks irrigation water from the Ve Vung dam is that, in the past, Dong Thanh commune had not established an irrigation team, so people arbitrarily built barriers across the irrigation canals in Dong Thanh commune without intervention from relevant authorities and the local government. The Van Thanh Agricultural Cooperative's plan is that if this situation continues, they will allocate funds to rent water pumps from the Dinh River to irrigate the rice crops. Currently, the rice is in the flowering stage, and a lack of irrigation water is unacceptable.

For the past few days, Mr. Le Van Dinh, the head of Hamlet 2B, has been frequently...
They are on standby to fetch water for the fields.

Mr. Le Van Dinh, head of Hamlet 2B, expressed his concern: "The entire hamlet has 6 hectares of rice fields that rely on irrigation water from the Ve Vung dam, but they have been suffering from water shortages for many days now. After the commune submitted a proposal to the district, water has been flowing to the fields for the past two days. However, due to the weak water flow, only 3 hectares have been irrigated so far. The weather is intensely hot, and the rice is in the flowering stage. If the water doesn't arrive in time, the rice yield will decrease."

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong, Head of the Agriculture Department of Yen Thanh District, said: After receiving feedback from Van Thanh commune, the Agriculture Department directly inspected the situation and assigned responsibility to the Dong Thanh commune government to prevent people from arbitrarily building barriers across the irrigation canal and to regulate water flow to Van Thanh commune appropriately. At the same time, the district's Irrigation Enterprise was tasked with monitoring the secondary irrigation canal section through Dong Thanh commune to regulate water flow appropriately for both localities. The district also has a plan to use the pumping station of Tang Thanh commune to supply water to Van Thanh commune if the water supply from the Ve Vung dam is weak. At this time, the rice is flowering, so every effort must be made to prevent crop failure due to water shortage.

Mr. Le Van Khanh, Director of Yen Thanh Irrigation Enterprise, said: Immediately after receiving instructions from the Department of Agriculture, the Enterprise assigned staff to be on duty during the day on the canal section from the headwaters of the Ve Vung dam through Dong Thanh commune to channel water to Van Thanh commune.

Xuan Hoang