The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has asked 38 cities and provinces nationwide to promptly revise the operation of reservoirs to ensure water sources for low-lying areas in this dry season.
Cracked soil in Tan Thanh commune in Go Cong Dong district of the Mekong Delta province of Tian Giang (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has asked38 cities and provinces nationwide to promptly revise the operation ofreservoirs to ensure water sources for low-lying areas in this dry season,especially in vulnerable areas such as the central region, the CentralHighlands and the Mekong Delta region already hit by drought last year.
Inthe document sent to each locality, the ministry directed local people’scommittees to oversee relevant authorities as they examine the demand for waterin low-lying areas. They were also asked to watch the changes of weather andwater flows so that water is discharged from the reservoirs according to need.
Currently,67 reservoirs and dams are under the Government’s reservoir operation regulationsfor 11 rivers nationwide.
Thehead of the ministry’s Department of Water Source Management, Hoang Van Bay,said the regulations had helped provide reservoir water for lowland areas inthe dry season and prevented floods caused by improper water discharges.
Inthe previous dry season, thanks to the compliance with the regulations, 65.3billions of cubic metres of water were discharged to lowland areas nationwide.
Inthe central region and Central Highlands alone, the two hardest-hit areas ofthe historic drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon, about 17.4 billion cubicmetres of water were discharged to meet the urgent water demand for daily useand production activities.
However,Bay said, the amount of water only solved drought in certain low lying areasdue to lax management and coordination among ministries, sectors andlocalities. As regulated, reservoir owners must set up plans for dischargingwater and report to the local authority and the ministry in order to get finalapproval and ensure that the plan does not contradict plans of other areas.However, not every owner asked for the local authority’s permission, leading toineffective drought prevention nationwide.
Bay said that in order to solve the problem, thedepartment has set up inspection teams to directly supervise the operation ofreservoirs. Units in charge of managing reservoirs were required to supplyinformation and data on the reservoirs on their websites for bettermanagement.-VNA
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Cracked soil in Tan Thanh commune in Go Cong Dong district of the Mekong Delta province of Tian Giang (Photo: VNA) 
