Dam breach in Gia Lai irrigation reservoir, hundreds of people mobilized for rescue

Kinhtedothi - The dam of Ia Ring irrigation reservoir (Chu Se district, Gia Lai province) suddenly had a large hole, causing many hectares of rice fields downstream to be flooded. The locality mobilized many forces, up to more than a hundred people carrying rocks, sandbags, and weaving iron baskets to fill the hole and rescue the dam.

Information from Gia Lai Irrigation Works Exploitation Company said: in the early morning of November 14, 2024, the unit discovered a hole in the body of the Ia Ring irrigation reservoir dam due to erosion, water flowing freely, flooding many rice fields downstream. After that, the Company's leaders informed the local authorities to mobilize local forces to fill the hole and save the dam body.

Hundreds of people rescue Ia Ring reservoir dam.

According to records, the hole in the dam body was large, right next to the irrigation outlet, creating a vortex that sucked in water. Hundreds of people, along with the authorities, used wire mesh to make baskets and poured boulders to patch the hole.

Ms. Rmah H'Bé Net, Chairman of the People's Committee of Chu Se district, said that the locality has mobilized forces from communes and local militia forces to bring materials to treat and patch the hole in the dam body.

People urgently brought sandbags, woven iron baskets and put in boulders to fill the hole.

Until 3 p.m., hundreds of people continued to carry rocks, pack sandbags, and weave iron baskets to fix the holes.

On the same afternoon, leaders of Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee and departments, branches and sectors came to inspect the dam rescue situation.

Gather rocks to fill the hole in the irrigation water intake.

According to the assessment of the dam management unit, the initial cause of the incident was predicted to be a breach in the main water intake corridor, causing water from the reservoir to flow down the corridor through a leak, causing the ground to collapse, sweeping away 4 reinforced concrete slabs of the upper slope with a width of 6m², the depth of the collapse hole was estimated to be more than 20m from the elevation of 688.5m.

Downstream communes such as Ia Tiem, Chu Pong, Dun commune and some other communes are required to prepare 4 on-site forces to deal with incidents if the dam breaks.

Mr. Vu Ngoc An, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Gia Lai province said: "After completing the repair, we will carefully assess the cause of the dam body problem and propose solutions to ensure long-term safety of the dam body."

The hole next to the culvert takes water for irrigation downstream.

Ia Ring Reservoir started construction in April 2004 and was completed in December 2008. The Ia Ring Reservoir has a dam body longer than 500m, 29m high, a 154m long water intake, and a design capacity of 10.18 million m3 of water, providing irrigation water for 2,300 hectares of crops in Ia Tiem, Ia Blang, Dun communes and Chu Se town (Chu Se district).

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/thung-dap-ho-thuy-loi-o-gia-lai-huy-dong-hang-tram-nguoi-ung-cuu.html