On January 2, 2024, in the joyful and exciting atmosphere of the first days of the new year, at the Nam Thach Han irrigation system headworks, Quang Tri Irrigation Works Management and Exploitation Company Limited coordinated with related units to organize the "water opening" ceremony to serve agricultural production and provide water for people's daily life. For those working in the management and exploitation of irrigation works in the province, the "water opening" ceremony was held in early 2024 to mark the start of a new irrigation season for a new crop with many hopes but also heavy with worries and concerns.
The complete canal system contributes to promoting agricultural production development - Photo: D.T
Great efforts to serve production and people's lives
Since the liberation of Quang Tri province (May 1972), irrigation has been identified as the leading solution to promote agricultural economic development and improve people's lives in the "thirsty land", so the State has invested in this field with a large amount of capital, contributing to the formation of a widespread and quite complete irrigation network.
Up to now, after nearly half a century of use, the initially built irrigation works along with the later supplemented works are still basically effective, ensuring the supply of irrigation water for agricultural production and people's lives. To serve production, the agricultural sector has proactively completed the irrigation system to proactively irrigate over 85% of the province's two-crop rice growing area. Thanks to that, in 2023, the province's rice yield will reach over 60 quintals/ha.
Grain output reached over 300,000 tons. It can be affirmed that up to now, irrigation is still one of the decisive factors for rice productivity and output, contributing to firmly consolidating the "support of the economy" which is the agricultural sector, promoting the restructuring of agriculture towards increasing added value and sustainable development. In addition, irrigation also contributes to making the rural appearance more prosperous, the lives of farmers are improved and enhanced, the environment is increasingly clean...
As a state-owned enterprise operating in the public interest with the task of managing and exploiting medium and large irrigation works in Quang Tri province, Quang Tri Irrigation Works Management and Exploitation Company Limited has clearly defined its "mission" for the province's agricultural production and is always dedicated to serving, recognized by farmers in the province.
Currently, the company provides irrigation services for agricultural production in 8/10 districts, towns and cities with a total irrigation area of over 32,700 hectares/year, preventing salinity and draining water for 13,000 hectares/year. In addition, the company is also responsible for supplying water for industry, aquaculture, domestic water and serving people's lives.
The projects managed by the company include 16 reservoirs, 2 dams, 29 pumping stations with a total installed capacity of 2,000 kW, 9 sluice works, saltwater prevention dams (in April 2022, the company was assigned to manage the additional saltwater prevention dam of Hieu River) and over 867 km of canals.
Faced with increasingly unfavorable weather conditions due to the impact of global climate change, to ensure irrigation for production, every year, right from the beginning of the winter-spring crop, the company has proactively developed a drought prevention plan for the systems; proposed supporting irrigation solutions; and planned to simplify irrigation schedules to save water with the goal of storing enough water in the reservoirs to irrigate the summer-autumn crop.
Mobilize cooperatives to build embankments to retain water in the fields right from the beginning of the crop season to limit the use of lake water. Develop specific irrigation plans for each dam, striving to meet the irrigation needs of agricultural production and aquaculture.
Thanks to proactive water resources, mechanization in the fields takes place smoothly - Photo: D.T
According to Decision No. 130/QD-UBND dated January 19, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee approving the irrigation and drainage area to support the price of irrigation public services and products in 2024, the total irrigation area managed by Quang Tri Irrigation Works Management and Exploitation Company Limited is 32,772.40 hectares (16,777.40 hectares for the winter-spring crop and 16,337.60 hectares for the summer-autumn crop), of which rice is 32,048.40 hectares (two crops), the rest is for irrigation of vegetables, short-term industrial crops and water supply for aquaculture.
From December 24, 2023, in order to prepare for the operation of the water opening project to serve production and domestic water supply for local people, the company and related units have launched an irrigation campaign, organized clearing and dredging of canals, maintenance and repair of machinery and equipment of pumping stations, regulating sluices and operations. Up to now, the irrigation systems have been ensured to be clear and open to serve production, creating a source of domestic water supply for local people, meeting the set plan.
Talking to us, Mr. Le Van Truong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Quang Tri Irrigation Works Management and Exploitation Company Limited, said that with a positive, proactive, creative and highly responsible spirit, all officers, employees and workers of the company are making efforts to carry out the task of supplying water for agricultural production and people's lives according to the set plan. However, the difficulties, problems and obstacles that have not been addressed in the company for a long time have had certain impacts on the completion of the assigned tasks.
A tangled mess of hundreds of problems...
According to Mr. Le Van Truong, in recent years, during the operation process, the company has encountered many difficulties, problems, and obstacles that have not been resolved by the province and related sectors.
First of all, regarding construction management, although the company has focused on implementing the contents on dam safety according to the provisions of Decree No. 114/2018/ND-CP of the Government, there are currently 6 contents that require funding to be implemented, namely: building a database system on dams and irrigation reservoirs in the area; updating the database system on dams and irrigation reservoirs of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; completing the installation of monitoring equipment for dams and reservoirs; installing specialized hydrometeorological monitoring equipment; dam safety inspection; installation of an operational monitoring system, safety warning information equipment for dams and downstream areas; flood maps...
It is noteworthy that to date, most of the projects managed by the company have not been inspected for dam safety. The assessment of project safety before the annual flood season is mainly based on management experience. Potential risks of incidents in the projects have not been scientifically assessed. Therefore, project safety management, especially during the flood season, is posing a major challenge to the company.
Regarding the handling of violations of construction safety corridors, in recent years, the company has regularly followed the area, increased construction inspections, promptly detected and handled violations of construction safety corridors, and prevented new violations from arising. However, there are still many cases of construction safety violations that have occurred in the past, and the enterprises have paid attention to handling them, but the results have not been thorough.
Construction maintenance work has encountered many difficulties in recent years, and the budget for this item does not meet actual needs. Therefore, regular repairs are limited to dredging, clearing, and weeding canals and maintaining machinery and equipment at the pump stations at a minimum level to serve irrigation.
Especially in 2023, due to lack of funding, only 300 million VND can be balanced, so there are no conditions to organize implementation. This situation causes many construction items to deteriorate and be damaged without being maintained, affecting the process of supplying water for production.
Regarding the decentralization of project management, many canals have an area of responsibility of less than 200 hectares and pass through many localities. However, currently, localities have not established "grassroots irrigation teams", so these canals have not been handed over to local management.
In addition, the management and exploitation of irrigation works must comply with a number of relevant legal regulations such as: granting land use right certificates; granting licenses for water exploitation and use; developing environmental protection plans; building storage areas, implementing waste management... but there is currently no funding to implement these.
In the work of natural disaster prevention and control, currently the dams managed by the company have not been equipped with specialized hydrometeorological monitoring equipment such as measuring water levels, rainfall, etc. The work is mainly done manually, so the data update work is not highly accurate, affecting flood forecasting and regulation work.
In drought prevention, although the company has proactively developed a plan from the beginning of the season, due to the lack of specific regulations and support levels for implementation, it has encountered many difficulties. Currently, some mechanical equipment of key projects such as regulating sluice gates and flood spillways have been used for more than 20 years, have rusted, damaged, and degraded, causing unsafety for the project and difficulties for disaster prevention and control.
In economic management, the revenue from irrigation fees is currently unbalanced, not enough to cover the regular operations of the unit. Due to fluctuations in wages and increased electricity bills, the company's revenue cannot cover the expenses. Meanwhile, the provincial budget is in difficulty, so there is no funding to support the stable operations of the unit.
In 2023, due to insufficient revenue, the allowances for the 3rd shift of operation and regulation were cut; there were no costs for holidays and Tet; electricity costs were only balanced at 0.4/2.7 billion VND; the depreciation expenses for assets and other expenses directly related to the provision of irrigation products and services were not sufficiently balanced.
On the other hand, the company was assigned to manage the Hieu River saltwater dam project, but the unit's irrigation area did not increase, so revenue did not increase. The support for the two welfare reward funds was only 30% according to the approved plan (2021, 2022) due to the difficult provincial budget, so salaries and bonuses could not ensure the rights of employees...
“Bottlenecks” need to be “cleared”
We asked Mr. Le Van Truong: "To "unblock" the "bottlenecks" you just mentioned, what is the first solution?", Mr. Truong replied: "In the context that the company is facing economic difficulties, we respectfully request the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to advise the Provincial People's Committee to consider allocating funds for the company to fully implement the contents of ensuring construction safety according to Decree 114/2018/ND-CP of the Government.
In addition, the company has been handed over, received, managed and operated a number of projects such as Trieu Thuong 1,2 lakes, Hieu river saltwater dam, projects under WB7, WB8... but has not yet been assigned assets to determine annual maintenance costs. The company recommends that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development request investors to hand over assets soon so that the company has a basis for management in accordance with regulations.
Regarding maintenance and repair work, according to Decision No. 3965/QD-UBND dated December 31, 2020 of the Provincial People's Committee approving technical and economic norms in the management, exploitation and protection of irrigation works, the cost of maintenance and repair of works is calculated as a percentage of the original value of fixed assets, equivalent to about 5.65 billion VND.
Therefore, every year, the company requests competent authorities to consider additional funding to carry out maintenance and repair of the project, promoting irrigation efficiency. Particularly for 2023, the regular repair cost is only balanced according to the appraisal plan of 0.3/3.5 billion VND, so the company has no basis for implementation. In order to minimize long-term damage to the project, the company requests the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to give instructions on implementation solutions so that the company has a basis to implement in accordance with the project maintenance process.
Dao Tam Thanh
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