The Ministry of Justice has just publicly disclosed the policy dossier of the Law on Disaster Prevention and Control (replacement).
In the draft Submission submitted for appraisal, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment stated that in practice there is no policy prioritizing the useful capacity of reservoirs to cut floods for downstream areas.
In recent years, many irrigation and hydropower reservoirs built and operated have allocated a useful capacity to reduce floods for downstream areas. However, reservoirs still have useful capacity that has not been used to reduce floods for downstream areas, especially inter-reservoirs in the Central region such as on the Ma River basin (flood reduction capacity for downstream areas is 589 million m3/total useful capacity is 1.326 million m3), Ca River (flood reduction capacity for downstream areas is 683.24 million m3/total useful capacity is 2.291 million m3), Huong River (flood reduction capacity for downstream areas is 870.86 million m3/total useful capacity is 1.087.1 million m3), Vu Gia - Thu Bon River (flood reduction capacity for downstream areas is 466.38 million m3/total useful capacity is 1.345.4 million m3);
Tra Khuc River (flood reduction capacity for downstream is 220.05 million m3/total useful capacity is 477.59 million m3), Kon - Ha Thanh River (flood reduction capacity for downstream is 280.67 million m3/total useful capacity is 520.15 million m3), Ba River (flood reduction capacity for downstream is 531.44 million m3/total useful capacity is 1,147.88 million m3),...
Faced with the increasingly extreme and unusual rain and flood situation and the shortcomings and inadequacies in reservoir operation in recent years, especially in 2024 and 2025, in Conclusion No. 213-KL/TW dated November 21, 2025, the Secretariat directed "adjusting inter-reservoir and single hydropower and irrigation reservoir operating procedures, in which priority must be given to reservoir useful capacity to cut floods for downstream areas".
At point b, clause 2, Article 26 of the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, there are regulations on basic measures to respond to drought and saltwater intrusion: "Rational operation of water reservoirs, water supply works, prioritizing domestic water supply; economical use, preventing water loss". However, in clause 1, Article 26 of the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control on basic measures to respond to storms, tropical depressions, heavy rain, floods, flash floods, flooding, waterlogging, landslides due to rain and floods or currents, land subsidence due to rain and floods or currents, there are no regulations on prioritizing the allocation of useful reservoir capacity to cut floods for downstream areas.
Therefore, to institutionalize the direction of the Secretariat, it is necessary to supplement the policy of prioritizing the useful capacity of reservoirs to cut floods for downstream areas in the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control" - the draft Submission clearly states.
