How Nghe An responds to historic floods in western communes

In recent days, many highland communes in Nghe An have suffered unprecedented floods, with the amount of water flowing into the Ban Ve hydropower reservoir being three times higher than the flood in 2018. To respond, local authorities as well as relevant units have had to stay up all night, racing against time to ensure people's safety and minimize damage. In particular, the response to the flood has also shown the effectiveness of the newly-established two-level government.

Racing against the historic flood

Sitting in a daze in front of his house that was torn apart by the flood, Mr. Kha Duong Tien (80 years old, Nhon Mai commune) was still in shock after witnessing the historic flood that devastated his village.

“I have never seen such a terrible flood, even in my imagination. Luckily it has passed and all my relatives are safe,” said Mr. Tien.

Looking far away at the Hy stream, the "one" that has made him and many other people here live in fear for the past few days, Mr. Tien said that if he had not listened to the government's advice to evacuate early, perhaps he would have been swept away by the familiar stream.

The house was torn apart by floodwaters from Khe Hy stream. Photo: LT

Nhon Mai is a border commune, located in the upper Lam River. People in 21 villages here mainly build their houses next to streams and creeks flowing from Laos. This is the first commune in Nghe An to be affected by the flood and also one of the most severely damaged. From early morning on July 21, heavy rain began in Nhon Mai. The rain lasted for a minute without stopping until the evening of July 22.

“It is true that the heavy rain lasted for a long time, but that amount of water was not enough to cause this terrible flood. The water flowed mainly from streams and creeks from Laos, probably on the other side of the border, the rain was extremely heavy,” said Mr. Lu Ngoc Tinh - Vice Chairman of Nhon Mai Commune People's Committee. He said that when the big floods had not yet swept down, realizing the danger, from the afternoon of July 21, all officials and civil servants of the commune had to race against time to respond, asking people in villages near streams and creeks to evacuate to higher ground. The most dangerous was in Xoi Voi village, where the authorities had to set up temporary shelters on high ground and evacuate all dozens of households to take refuge there.

Local authorities support people to evacuate. Photo: LT

In many remaining villages, people were encouraged to seek refuge in safe locations, even sleeping outdoors. Many valuable assets in their homes were also urgently moved by the people and the authorities.

By noon on July 22, flash floods along streams and creeks began to rumble down, sweeping away a series of houses and offices. In many villages such as Co Ha and Xoi Voi, most of the houses were swept away. National Highway 16 running through Nhon Mai commune was torn to pieces by the flood, the road surface was shredded, leaving the commune completely isolated. The entire traffic system from the commune center to the villages was completely cut off until the afternoon of July 24...

"Fortunately, we evacuated in time. If people had stayed in their homes, we cannot imagine the consequences," added Mr. Lu Ngoc Tinh.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh and Nghe An Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Duc Trung visited people in flooded areas. Photo: Pham Bang

Located next to Nhon Mai, the villages in My Ly commune also have to endure the torrential floods pouring in from rivers and streams on the other side of the border. My Ly and Nhon Mai are two communes upstream of Ban Ve hydroelectric reservoir, in which My Ly is the first point where Nam Non stream - the main stream of Lam river flows into Vietnam.

Mr. Luong Van Bay - Chairman of the People's Committee of My Ly commune said that although the flood came very suddenly, the government had promptly mobilized and propagated people to evacuate to safe places. On the evening of July 22, the flood collapsed and submerged hundreds of houses, many bridges were swept away. The peaceful villages located along the Nam Non river became desolate after the flood.

A house collapsed, luckily the owner was able to evacuate in time. Photo: TH

"Timely regulation"

At the same time, more than 100km downstream of My Ly River, dozens of leaders and employees of Ban Ve Hydropower Plant were also "sitting on fire" when the water flow into the reservoir increased rapidly. They had to stay up all night, monitoring every change to issue warnings and reports so that the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee could make timely decisions to ensure the safety of the dam but also to minimize damage to the downstream area of ​​the hydropower plant.

Mr. Ta Huu Hung - Director of Ban Ve Hydropower Plant and Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, Mr. Pham Van Hoa checked flood parameters at Ban Ve Hydropower Plant. Photo: Tien Hung

Mr. Ta Huu Hung - Director of Ban Ve Hydropower Plant said that the meteorological agency forecasts that due to the impact of storm No. 3, the basin of the hydropower reservoir will have heavy rain, but the water flow to the lake is forecasted to be only about ^3,000m3 /s.

“Despite such forecasts, we are not subjective, but have prepared a response scenario for the water flow into the reservoir to be twice as much as forecast, at ^6,500m3 /s,” Mr. Hung said, adding that on July 21, when the flood had not yet appeared, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee made a very timely decision to let Ban Ve Hydropower Plant discharge water early so that the reservoir would have more capacity to receive the flood.

“At that time, the downstream was not flooded yet, there was no forecast of a large flood, the lake water level was low, and in terms of procedures, there was no need to release water early. But the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee decided to release water early, thus creating a very large capacity for the lake to wait for the flood. That was a very correct decision, because releasing water when the flood has come is very dangerous and before releasing, we have to wait for many hours to complete the procedures and then notify the people downstream,” Mr. Hung said.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Hoang Hiep and a working delegation from Nghe An province inspected the operation of Ban Ve hydropower reservoir on the morning of July 23. Photo: Quang An

At 4:00 a.m. on July 22, the flood began to flow into the hydroelectric reservoir with a flow rate of 583 m³/s, the lake water level was at 189.08 m. At 10:00 a.m. the same day, the flood flow increased rapidly, reaching 1,500 m³/s, the lake water level reached 194.36 m.

From 4:00 p.m. on July 22, the plant began to operate to discharge floodwaters with a total flow of 845 m³/s, the lake water level reached 191.23 m, approaching the lowest flood level (191.5 m). In the evening, heavy rain continued to cause the water flow to the lake to increase rapidly, peaking at 2:00 a.m. on July 23 at 12,800 m³/s. This is an unprecedented flow, even 3 times larger than the flood that caused great damage to the downstream area in 2018. However, thanks to the decision to discharge early to create more capacity, the discharge flow at this time is only 3,285 m³/s. That is, Ban Ve Hydropower Plant has contributed to cutting and reducing floods for the downstream area by 74%.

Unprecedented flood scene at the foot of Khe Bo hydroelectric dam. Photo: Tien Hung

Directly inspecting the Ban Ve and Khe Bo Hydropower Plants as well as the flood situation in the communes of Western Nghe An, Mr. Pham Van Hoa - Director of the Department of Industry and Trade said that the flood has caused great damage to the people.

"However, it can be affirmed that this flood, the flood discharge operation in Ban Ve in particular and hydropower plants in general has been effective, helping to reduce flooding. Without timely coordination, with the scale of the flood like that, it would have been a tragedy," Mr. Hoa commented.

Mr. Hoa said that immediately after the forecast of the impact of storm No. 3, the provincial leaders as well as the Department of Industry and Trade directed hydropower plants to strengthen the work of ensuring the safety of dams and reservoirs. Strictly implement the single reservoir and inter-reservoir operation procedures, regularly monitor to operate discharge to ensure safety in downstream areas, monitor flood developments to lower the reservoir water level according to the procedure to ensure operation. Closely coordinate with local authorities, fully and promptly notify by many methods to local authorities, people and related units in downstream areas in flood discharge operations to proactively prepare response plans, especially in emergency flood discharge situations and flood discharge at night...

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh inspects the flood situation in the downstream area. Photo: Huu Dung

The effectiveness of two-level government

As the area is located right at the foot of the Ban Ve hydroelectric dam, Mr. Nguyen Van Thang - Secretary of the Party Committee of Luong Minh commune said that if there is no reasonable regulation, the hydroelectric plant only needs to discharge at half the water flow into the reservoir, most of the houses in Luong Minh would be swept away.

“Luong Minh has a very dangerous terrain, not only at the foot of the hydroelectric plant, but most of the houses live on a narrow strip of land along the river. Therefore, such a big flood, but still ensuring people's safety can be said to be a miracle,” Mr. Thang said, adding that although the hydroelectric plant has cut and reduced the flood to some extent, because this flood was so big, Luong Minh commune also had nearly 100 houses damaged by over 70%.

Damaged houses in Tuong Duong commune. Despite the huge property damage, no casualties were reported in the downstream communes of Ban Ve. Photo: TH

Luong Minh commune authorities help people move their belongings before the flood arrives. Photo: Nguyen Hoa

Mr. Thang said that in this historic flood, the two-level government has been effective, contributing to minimizing damage. "I witnessed the flood in 2018, although the amount of water flowing in was much smaller than now, it caused great damage. At that time, disaster prevention was still limited, the district government waited for the commune to report, the commune level waited for the district to direct, not being close to the people. Meanwhile, prevention needs to be timely," Mr. Thang said, adding that to respond to this flood, early on, the commune went to each village to check, then evacuated nearly 2/3 of the households in the area to a safe place. Commune headquarters, schools... became shelters for people, along with many valuable assets were also moved promptly.

Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh and Nghe An Provincial Party Secretary visit flood victims. Photo: Pham Bang

Sharing this view, Mr. Nguyen Phung Hung - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong commune said that the two-level government has created many favorable conditions in the work of preventing and fighting this historic flood: "Although the flood was such a record-breaking big flood, it can be said that Tuong Duong commune as well as Luong Minh commune had no damage, which is a miracle. Honestly, on the evening of July 22, when we received information that the flood was pouring into the hydroelectric reservoir so large, we also thought of a tragedy."

According to Mr. Hung, to cope with the flood, Tuong Duong commune was divided into groups to be in charge of each area in the commune. All cadres, civil servants, police, and military personnel were mobilized, staying up all night to mobilize and help people evacuate to safety. In just a short time, more than 2,200 households, accounting for half of the households in the commune, were urgently evacuated. In some cases, forced evacuation was even required.

“In the past, when going to prevent floods, we had to report, ask for opinions from the district level and then wait for instructions, which was very passive and did not allow us to handle the situation when the flood rose quickly. But now, the commune has the right to decide, so it is more timely and proactive. In addition, when implementing a two-level government, the commune directly receives notifications, contacts hydropower plants, and directly receives instructions from provincial leaders, so it is also more timely than the floods of previous years,” Mr. Hung added.

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Source: https://baonghean.vn/cach-nghe-an-ung-pho-voi-tran-lu-lich-su-o-cac-xa-phia-tay-10303170.html