Official: Government stands firm on cancelling inefficient hydropower projects The government would continue to tighten control over the hydropower industry, cancelling any inefficient projects, said Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.   Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai criticises irresponsible hydropower investors Deputy Prime Minister, Hoang Trung Hai, reaffirmed this intention during a recent interview where he answered questions about the negative impacts of several hydropower dams that recently added to flooding in the country. Public concerns have been raised over the fact that several hydropower dams worsened flooding caused by the recent typhoons that have hit Vietnam. What are your comments about this issue? The government has worked out clear policies on hydropower and the country will continue to develop hydroelectricity because of its role in securing the our energy supply. Development of hydropower dams are expected to help store water for industrial and agricultural uses and services as well as those for daily life. However, many have said that the designers of several hydropower projects are paying too much attention to making profits while controlling flooding during rainy seasons or helping with water shortages during the dry season, have not received enough focus. Some still complain of a lack of coordination between hydropower dams, causing unexpected consequences. What do you think about this? What I mentioned before just sketched out some of the advantages of hydropower and irrigation dams. The public is concerned with the disadvantages. It’s important to minimise such shortcomings to sustainably develop hydroelectricity. To this end, supervision is of great importance. The government recently conducted an inspection of all hydropower facilities and irrigation dams nationwide in order to streamline hydropower projects and avoid unplanned events, increase investment efficiency and increase the responsibility of investors. In order to ensure that hydropower development does not disrupt people’s lives the government has issued operation processes of hydropower dams to better control hydropower projects. The processes would be continuously adjusted to ensure more suitable operations. In fact, several hydropower and irrigation dams have caused serious flood but it seems that no one has been held accountable, right? All cases of dam breakdowns and illegally discharging water, which caused floods have been dealt with. However, their violations are not subject to criminal fines. People often think that those whose wrongdoings cause serious consequences must be jailed, but investigative agencies should make the decisions. Many hydropower investors have had to make compensations. After the recent inspection, the government decided to cancel hundreds of hydropower dams, proving its determination on this issue. Even though over 400 hydropower projects have been cancelled, do we have a safe situation with hundreds of other projects are still under construction or are planned for construction? Scrutiny would continue and any and any inefficient projects would continue to be removed. The government recently cancelled six large hydropower projects as well as 418 small and medium-sized ones that are inefficient and have caused serious social and environmental impacts. Two major hydropower projects of Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A which drew much of public concerns were cancelled. Hundreds of other hydropower projects have been removed from planning as well. By P. Thao | dtinews.vn