Inspection of 4 trillion-dollar irrigation projects, speed 'snail crawling'

Inspection of 4 irrigation projects

The Government Inspectorate directly inspected four major projects under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MARD), namely: Ben Tre Jica 3 Water Management Project, Krong Pach Thuong Reservoir Project in Dak Lak Province; Ban Mong Reservoir Phase 1, Nghe An Province; Ia Mor Reservoir Irrigation Project, Dak Lak Province.

A saltwater prevention sluice of the Ben Tre Water Management Project JICA-3.

According to the Government Inspectorate , this is considered one of the largest inspections in many years, expected to clarify the causes of delays and violations, if any, and recommend solutions to quickly put projects into practice, avoiding waste of resources and land.

The inspection will begin in July, and the inspection conclusion will be issued before September 25. The Government Inspectorate will report the summary results to the Prime Minister in early October.

Large investment capital but slow progress , many problems

The common point of the irrigation projects under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment that are being investigated is that they are large-scale projects with a total investment of thousands of billions of VND but are entangled in many problems and have been delayed for a long time. Specifically:

The Ben Tre JICA-3 Water Management Project has a total investment of 6,200 billion VND from ODA loans of the Japanese Government, approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment for adjustment in 2017. The project is invested by the Irrigation Investment and Construction Management Board 9, in coordination with the Ben Tre Province Agricultural and Rural Development Project Management Board to carry out site clearance. The project is constructing 8 large sluices, however, to date, only 2 sluices have been completed, the remaining 6 sluices are being implemented slowly, causing the project to fall into a state of prolonged delay.

The Krong Pach Thuong Reservoir Project in Dak Lak has a total investment of VND 5,536 billion, of which phase 1 is VND 4,415 billion and phase 2 is VND 1,120 billion.

The project is invested by the Irrigation Investment and Construction Management Board 9, in coordination with the Dak Lak Rural Development Traffic and Agricultural Construction Investment Project Management Board.

Phase 1 was completed and inaugurated in April this year, with items such as the headworks cluster, the North and South main canal systems, providing irrigation water for 14,900 hectares of agricultural land and domestic water for nearly 73,000 people. Phase 2 is implementing the lower-level canal system as planned, expected to be completed before December 31, 2026 according to the project approval decision.

The Ban Mong Reservoir Project with a total investment adjusted to VND5,552 billion, started construction in 2010 and is expected to be inaugurated in August this year. Photo: Ngoc Tu.

The Ban Mong Reservoir Project in Nghe An has an initial total investment of VND 4,455 billion, which will increase to VND 5,552 billion after being adjusted in 2023. The project started in 2010, with the Irrigation Investment and Construction Management Board 4 as the investor of the key works cluster component, and the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Nghe An province in charge of the compensation, support and resettlement component.

This is a multi-purpose project with a reservoir capacity of 225 million m³, providing irrigation water for nearly 19,000 hectares of agricultural land, serving daily life, developing hydropower and regulating floods. However, to date, the site clearance work has not been completed with about 226 hectares still stuck, involving nearly 80 households. Many other items such as resettlement areas and some roads still have many problems.

More seriously, a number of individuals and businesses involved in the project were prosecuted by the Ministry of Public Security at the end of October 2024 for violating accounting and bidding regulations, causing great waste. Eight defendants, including officials from Division 4 and Hoang Dan Company, were prosecuted.

According to information from the Department of Irrigation Construction and Management, up to now, the headworks of Ban Mong Reservoir have been completed, expected to be inaugurated on August 19, and will start generating electricity and preventing floods from September 2025. Regarding site clearance work, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces are currently directing units to speed up the progress to complete before December 31, 2025 according to the Prime Minister's decision.

The Ia Mor Reservoir Project (in Dak Lak and Gia Lai) was approved by the Prime Minister in 2005 with a total investment of more than VND 1,263 billion. By 2015, the project was adjusted down to more than VND 1,160 billion, but the situation was not any better.

The project is invested by the Irrigation Construction and Investment Management Board 8, and the site clearance part is assigned to the People's Committees of Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces. Although the water canal system from Gia Lai province to Dak Lak province has been basically completed, ensuring water supply for 9,200 hectares, serious violations have occurred during the compensation process.

On June 30, 2025, Gia Lai Provincial People's Court tried 8 defendants on a series of charges such as appropriating compensation money, creating fake documents, causing billions of dong in damage to the State related to the project.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is coordinating with Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces to research and continue investing in the medium term of 2026-2030 to transfer water to other water-scarce areas, making full use of the functions of the built lake.