Reservoirs prioritize capacity to cut floods for downstream

Authorities ensure safety for Cay An irrigation dam (Ta Nang commune, Lam Dong province)

On December 9, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Hoang Hiep signed an official dispatch to units managing and exploiting important irrigation reservoirs and units managing and exploiting inter-provincial irrigation reservoirs, requesting to immediately review and evaluate reservoir operations and prepare disaster response plans for 2026.

Specifically, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment requested units to review and comprehensively evaluate the operation of irrigation reservoirs according to the operating procedures and organization and implementation work in the past time, ensuring the safety of works, downstream areas and serving multi-purpose water supply, flood and rain situations... as a basis for adjusting and supplementing operating procedures in accordance with climate change conditions, extreme floods, infrastructure and downstream safety requirements, completing the review and preparing documents to adjust operating procedures before April 2026.

In particular, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed to prioritize the useful capacity of reservoirs to cut floods for downstream areas, and to flexibly regulate pre-flood water levels to maximize flood prevention capacity. Units use a part of the flood prevention capacity above the normal rising water level of the reservoir to improve the ability to cut and reduce floods for downstream areas. At the same time, it is necessary to specify the minimum notice time before operating flood discharge; methods of communication and warning to agencies, units and people in the affected area (flood discharge time, flood discharge volume, scope and level of flooding...) as well as propose solutions for communication and warning when there is no phone signal or power outage.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment also requested units to collect flood data to update and develop disaster response plans, downstream flood maps, flood escape corridors and emergency response plans close to reality, ensuring compliance with the "4 on-site" motto and consistent with the operation of the 2-level local government model.

Along with that, it is necessary to assess the current status of the reservoir after the 2025 flood season, develop a plan and repair plan to ensure the safety of the project in the 2026 flood season and the following years. Summarize the proposed work contents and add them to the unit's production and business plan in 2026 according to regulations before January 15, 2026 for special reservoirs and before January 30, 2026 for inter-provincial reservoirs.

PHUC VAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/cac-ho-chua-uu-tien-dung-tich-de-cat-lu-cho-ha-du-post827747.html