Urgently fix the dam break incident on Lu River 2

According to a quick report from the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Control and Search and Rescue, in the early morning of June 1, a large amount of water pouring into the Lu 2 River basin caused erosion and the complete collapse of Tuan Tu dam at K8+366.0m in An Hai commune (Ninh Phuoc).

At the middle of the Tuan Tu dam, there was a sudden subsidence, causing the dam section on the right shoulder and the energy dissipation yard behind the dam to collapse, about 30m long. The right shoulder made of stone also subsided, eroded deeply into the mainland, creating a frog's jaw about 5m, the eroded area at the dam's foot was about 40m2. The current dam body is no longer able to retain water as originally designed. Through inspection and preliminary assessment, the cause of subsidence and collapse of the dam body is due to the core stone from the dam's foot to the top of the dam being constantly submerged in water, so the mortar has been weathered, the dam body is no longer effective in creating adhesive between the stone, combined with the amount of mud and sand deposited over many years, causing great pressure on the dam body and the dam to become hollow, creating a frog's jaw, losing water, leading to the dam body collapsing. In addition, Tuan Tu dam was built a long time ago, the mortar has been weathered, the dam body is no longer effective in creating adhesive, causing the dam to break, not ensuring water supply for agricultural production.

The dam on Lu 2 River in An Hai Commune (Ninh Phuoc) was temporarily repaired with sand to get water for production.

According to the records at the scene, due to the dam break, the water intake sluices at Tuan Tu dam are currently hanging higher than the water level on Lu 2 River, unable to supply water for production for 100 hectares (mainly rice) from Tuan Tu canal and about 40 hectares of the pumping station serving the concentrated safe vegetable irrigation area of An Hai commune (belonging to the high-tech agricultural area of the province) have no irrigation water.

According to many people, the dam break in the middle of the dry season has made farmers very worried that the newly planted summer-autumn rice will dry up if the problem is not resolved promptly in the coming days. Mr. Thach Phuong in Tuan Tu village, An Hai commune said: My family has just planted more than 2 sao of rice for more than a week, now the Lu 2 River dam has broken and there is no water source to supply, so the entire newly planted rice area is at risk of drying up due to lack of water. If this situation lasts for just a few days, the rice plants will be considered seriously damaged. Hopefully, the relevant agencies will soon fix the problem so that farmers have water to save their crops from the risk of total loss.

Mr. Ho Thanh Phong, Vice Chairman of An Hai Commune People's Committee, said: The dam break affected more than 300 hectares of safe vegetable production area and summer-autumn rice crop was at risk of water shortage. The sudden water cut-off made farmers unable to take initiative. For vegetables, people can use well water instead. Particularly, the newly planted summer-autumn rice area is currently facing difficulties in water supply.

According to the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Control and Search and Rescue, the relevant authorities are currently temporarily overcoming the problem by building a temporary dam with sand to get water for people to produce in the summer-autumn crop; reinforcing the stone gabions to direct the flow on the Lu River at the upstream location of Tuan Tu dam to drain water into the suction tank of the pumping station serving the concentrated safe vegetable irrigation area of An Hai commune; dredging the channel and building a dike into Tuan Tu canal. In the long term, the provincial People's Committee will soon approve the plan to rebuild Tuan Tu dam in a solid direction to ensure a stable supply of irrigation water for the downstream area.

Tien Manh

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