Check all lakes and small hydroelectric dams to handle problems as quickly as possible.

Photo caption — Scene of the Bac Khe hydroelectric dam ( Lang Son ) breaking on the afternoon of October 7, 2025. Photo: VNA

After the on-site inspection, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep acknowledged the efforts and proactive response of the local Party Committee, government and functional forces of Lang Son province in responding to this incident. Thanks to closely following the situation, checking, reviewing and detecting early, the government and functional forces evacuated all residents in the downstream area of the hydroelectric dam to a safe place before the dam broke, thus ensuring the safety of the people.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep, the water level in the lake is currently mainly overflowing the dam, the amount of water escaping from the dam break is not large. However, specialized agencies and local authorities need to continue to closely monitor developments in the hydroelectric dam area to have timely response plans and promptly handle arising problems. "As soon as the weather is favorable and traffic flows again, specialized forces will approach the dam break to study solutions to overcome the incident and limit water flow to downstream areas," Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep emphasized.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep noted that the water in the lake is still relatively large and continues to flow downstream, so in the immediate future, we should try to limit the impact on the people. Therefore, we recommend that the province's specialized agencies such as the Department of Industry and Trade, the Department of Agriculture and Environment, and localities review all lakes and small hydroelectric dams in the area, update maps, design documents, and technical diagrams of each project so that when an incident occurs, it can be handled as quickly as possible.

After the dam collapse in Lang Son, other provinces across the country also reviewed their reservoirs and dams to promptly detect and handle incidents early; at the same time, they developed scenarios and plans to prevent and combat floods and incidents to protect people's lives and property.

According to a VNA reporter at That Khe commune at 8:00 p.m. the same day, the water level continued to rise. Accessing the site of the broken hydroelectric dam was very difficult, requiring travel by boat or canoe from That Khe commune, which was quite far away, in deep flood conditions and at night.

In That Khe, Trang Dinh, and Tan Tien communes, many roads are deeply flooded, with some areas reaching 1.5 - 2 meters. Lang Son province's authorities and armed forces are working through the night to support people in flooded areas, ensuring safety and minimizing damage caused by natural disasters.

Previously, as reported by VNA reporters, at around 1:30 p.m. on October 7, the Bac Khe 1 hydroelectric dam broke a section about 4-5 meters long and 3-4 meters deep. The initial cause of the dam break was determined to be prolonged heavy rain, with peak water flow reaching 1,572 m3/s, leading to a broken concrete slab at the dam's water intake. No human casualties have been recorded yet.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/ra-soat-toan-bo-ho-dap-thuy-dien-nho-de-xu-ly-nhanh-nhat-khi-co-su-co-20251007214426086.htm