EVN’s Vice President Ngo Son Hai, Chairman of the Project Acceptance Council, highly appreciated the practicability of the project
The objectives of the project are to develop a plan to collect water for the winter-spring rice cultivation, ensuring sufficient water for cultivation and saving the amount of water discharged from hydropower reservoirs; to develop an operation plan for discharging water from reservoirs in the Red River basin during periods of increased water discharge; to determine technical specifications of renovation and upgrade of water collection works along the Red River system, ensuring proactive water collection, regardless of additional flows from hydropower reservoirs. At the same time, the project puts forward proposals and recommendations to the Government and relevant agencies on the promulgated procedures of reservoir operation.
According to the Council's assessment, the project has introduced many new points such as recommendations to adjust the process of increasing water discharge which have been applied since 2019 and still applied in 2020. Specifically, in the first stage of water collection for cultivation, the water level in Hanoi will be maintained at 1.8m to ensure salinity push; in the second stage, the average water level in Hanoi will be maintained at 2m, with the lowest water level at 1.6m; in the third stage, the water level in Hanoi will be just maintained at 1.4m. In 2019, the saved amount of water discharge from hydropower reservoirs during the winter-spring cultivation period was 1.4 billion cubic meters. In 2020, it is expected to save about 1.8 billion cubic meters of water.
The project has proposed structural and non-structural measures to improve the efficiency of water collection works downstream of the river system. In addition, the project has presented solutions to optimize the economic value of water from reservoirs; raising the awareness of local authorities in the consumption of water; resolving conflicts in water use among sectors.
Representatives of the Institute of Water Resources Planning presenting their report to the Council
Concluding the meeting, EVN’s Vice President Ngo Son Hai, Chairman of the Project Acceptance Council, highly appreciated the research outcomes of the Institute of Water Resources Planning for more than two years. The practical application of the research in the 2019 crop has brought about high economic efficiency.
The Chairman of the Project Acceptance Council also assessed that the main objectives of the project had been achieved, meeting the requirements set by Vietnam Electricity. At the same time, he expected that the General Department of Irrigation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, on the basis of the project outcomes, would propose to the Government a revision of the reservoir operation process in accordance with actual conditions.