Flooding causes serious impact
On November 13, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Hoang Hiep and the Ministry's working delegation worked with Thai Nguyen province to discuss solutions to handle the flooding situation in this locality. On the side of Thai Nguyen province, there were Mr. Trinh Xuan Truong, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Pham Hoang Son, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and leaders of the Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee.
In recent years, central wards of Thai Nguyen province have suffered many major floods, of which the particularly large flood in October 2025 caused serious consequences. This historic flood broke all historical milestones on the Cau River section passing through Thai Nguyen province. At Gia Bay hydrological station, it will reach 29.9m, more than 1m above the historical flood peak (2024), 2.9m above the three-way warning.
The historic flood in October 2025 affected 200,000 households (including 115 houses collapsed and completely damaged; 465 houses were severely damaged, 69,391 houses were flooded); the agricultural sector suffered heavy damage, nearly 13,598 hectares of crops and seafood were damaged, more than 1 million livestock died and were swept away by water. Traffic, irrigation, education, health systems... were severely damaged.
Faced with the terrible devastation caused by floods, Thai Nguyen province has proposed a series of solutions, focusing on investment projects to build, upgrade, and complete the dike system, prevent floods and inundation on both sides of the Cau River section through the central area of the province.
This series of projects includes: Construction of Thac Huong 2 Dam; synchronous construction of dykes, embankments, and traffic routes on the two banks of Cau and Mo Linh rivers; construction of an anti-flooding system in the central area of Thai Nguyen province; construction of Gia Bay bridge and a system of pumping and drainage stations in the central area of the province.
In addition to the objective cause of heavy rain, the shortage of reservoirs to cut flood in the upstream also causes widespread flooding. In addition, some areas passing through the central wards of the province do not have a dike system, some places have them but the project is no longer suitable.
Need for a comprehensive solution
To solve the problem, some units under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment said that a synchronous, comprehensive solution is needed to drain floodwaters in the entire Cau River basin. Upstream, it is proposed to build 4 reservoirs to cut floodwaters, with a total capacity of about 200 million m3. If these 4 reservoirs can be built, the flood will be cut by about 130 million m3. For downstream areas, it is necessary to carefully study the plan to increase the ability to escape floods. In reality, in recent major floods, the ability to escape floods in downstream areas is slow.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the flooding problem of Thai Nguyen can only be solved when it is placed in the collective of the provinces in the Cau River basin. Currently, the Ministry has assigned specialized units to conduct a comprehensive study, after having accurate and scientific data, they will propose appropriate solutions to solve the problem of flood response in the provinces in the Cau River basin. With the current climate change conditions, the Ministry's viewpoint is to manage natural disaster risks in a proactive direction, accepting risks with control.
Regarding the proposal of Thai Nguyen province, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the construction of flood prevention and control works must answer the question, can the dike construction be completely flooded? If Thai Nguyen is not flooded, will the downstream be flooded?
Most experts believe that if the dike is built too high, it will not completely solve the flooding problem in the central wards of Thai Nguyen province but also affect urban space, the downstream provinces will be greatly affected.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the flooding problem in the central wards of Thai Nguyen province has not only occurred recently, the flooding trend is getting more and more serious, so it is necessary to immediately implement urban drainage projects. In the immediate future, Thai Nguyen province is urgently building a new Gia Bay bridge to expand flood drainage capacity and ensure the safety of the project. Regarding the construction of dykes on both sides of the Cau River, it is necessary to calculate very carefully based on very specific scientific basis.
Long term, the Ministry and Thai Nguyen province need to study the plan to build 4 reservoirs in the upstream of the Cau River to cut flood, along with solutions to increase flood drainage capacity in the downstream, flexible soft solutions in operating and regulating reservoirs.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep also said that the Thac Huong dam on the Cau River was built during the French colonial period with the task of raising water for irrigation, but is now a bottleneck that blocks the flow, reducing the ability to drain flood. Therefore, the Ministry will quickly implement the project to solve this problem.
