"Impatient" with the tens of billion pumping station abandoned for nearly ten years

Project worth tens of billions "shelved"

Vuc Giong pumping station in Long Son ward, Thai Hoa town is one of the projects of the component of pumping stations taking water from Hieu river of Ban Mong irrigation reservoir project invested by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An province.

The project is allocated a total budget of more than 30 billion VND from government bond capital, the station system includes: 2 submersible pumps with a total capacity of 90 KW, an operator's house, a transformer station, 2 main canals nearly 3 km long, 4 level 1 canals more than 2.6 km long.

3(2).jpg — Water pipe from river to pumping station.

The project was completed on May 30, 2015 and was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for completion settlement in Decision No. 3974/QD-BNN-TC dated October 19, 2022. The Vuc Giong pumping station was put into trial operation by the relevant parties in compliance with TCVN 5639:1991 on basic principles for acceptance of installed equipment and Decree No. 15/2013/ND-CP dated February 6, 2013 of the Government on construction quality management.

After 2 trial runs, the project has been operating normally, ensuring its designed capacity and safe operation. However, in reality, unlike the expectations of the local government and people, since the completion of the Vuc Giong Pumping Station, this project has not been able to be put into use to serve the agricultural production of local people.

According to actual records, the pumping station operator is old and at risk of serious degradation. The water suction pipe system along the river bank is rusted and seriously degraded. Meanwhile, many canal sections running through sugarcane, elephant grass and corn fields of block 3 (old hamlet 4) have been silted up and covered with grass due to long-term disuse...

4(3).jpg — Abandoned pumping station operator.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc - Vice Chairman of Long Son Ward People's Committee, said that the canal system running along the fields was abandoned, unusable, causing waste and obstructing people's internal traffic. The local government has repeatedly sent recommendations to competent authorities, hoping that the Vuc Giong Pumping Station would soon be put into operation to irrigate rice and crops for the people. However, most of the crop and rice areas of the people in this area do not have irrigation water, mainly producing thanks to natural rainwater.

When will it be operational ?

Mr. Hoang Tran Lam, Director of Phu Quy Irrigation One Member Co., Ltd. (the management and exploitation unit), said: “Because the project has not been handed over, it cannot be put into operation. Currently, the unit is waiting for the official decision of the Provincial People's Committee. After the handover, we will try to put it into effective operation to serve the people.”

Regarding the project not being put into use, causing damage and wasting tens of billions of VND, not bringing efficiency but also hindering intra-field traffic, relevant units have pointed out the causes and proposed solutions suitable to reality, meeting the needs and aspirations of the people of Long Son ward.

2(3).jpg — Pumping station invested tens of billions of dong is at risk of being "shelved".

Accordingly, the cause was pointed out to be that the electricity company stopped supplying electricity and the handover of management and exploitation encountered certain difficulties and inadequacies.

Specifically, according to the approved design documents and the actual construction and installation of the transformer station, the 160KVA-10(35)/0.4kV station was used, which was suitable for the voltage level at the time of design. However, by 2021, Nghia Dan - Thai Hoa District Power Company had upgraded the operating line from 10kV to 22kV according to the general plan, so the installed transformer station was no longer compatible with the new voltage level, leading to the project's temporary suspension of operation.

In addition, according to the provisions of Decree No. 129/2017/ND-CP dated November 16, 2017 of the Government: Irrigation works management and exploitation units (Irrigation One Member Co., Ltd.; Irrigation Management Centers; Grassroots Irrigation Organizations) are only units managing and exploiting irrigation infrastructure, not units managing irrigation infrastructure assets. The agencies assigned to manage irrigation infrastructure assets at the provincial level are the People's Committees of districts and communes (Clause 3, Article 3, Decree 129/2017/ND-CP dated November 16, 2017). This causes difficulties and inadequacies in the handover of management and exploitation.

In fact, for Vuc Giong Pumping Station, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An province has sent many documents to the Department of Finance and the People's Committee of Nghe An province regarding the assignment of the exploitation unit to manage assets and operate the project, but up to now there are still problems and no specific assignment opinions.

1(5).jpg — The unusable canal system runs through people's fields.

According to research, not only Nghe An province but many other provinces and cities are currently facing difficulties in the handover of asset management and exploitation after the completion of investment and construction. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is seeking comments on the draft Decree of the Government regulating the management, use and exploitation of irrigation infrastructure assets to remove existing difficulties in the handover of asset management and exploitation. Until the handover, the replacement of the transformer station cannot be carried out due to lack of funding.

It can be said that, for whatever reason, a project with an investment capital of more than 30 billion VND, built and completed for nearly ten years but not put into operation or use, will not only cause a great waste of state money but also make people's production difficult and cause much public outrage.

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