Thousands of hectares of rice are waiting for water
In the middle of the crop season, Ms. Le Thi Lien (55 years old, Dien Ban Dong ward, Da Nang city) looked at the fields and shook her head in frustration: "Without a dam to prevent salinity, salt water overflowed, the rice burned out. This season, we cannot harvest in time, so the rice is considered a total loss".
Ms. Lien's concern is also the reality that thousands of farmers in Dien Ban, An Thang, Hoi An, Hoi An Dong, Hoi An Tay, Ngu Hanh Son... are facing. Nearly 2,000 hectares of rice are producing areas that need urgent water, but the water source is seriously limited due to saltwater intrusion deep into the Vinh Dien River.
According to Quang Nam Irrigation Exploitation Company Limited, salinity has now penetrated deep into Vinh Dien River, the highest salinity measured at Tu Cau Bridge is 1.7 per thousand.
With prolonged hot weather, the water source downstream of the Vu Gia - Thu Bon river system has decreased combined with high tides, leading to continued salinity intrusion, affecting the operation of water pumping stations serving agricultural production in the summer-autumn crop of about 2,000 hectares.
The supply of domestic water to Hoi An Water Plant and creating a source for Ha Chau and Cam Thanh pumping stations in Hoi An Tay and Hoi An Dong wards is also seriously affected.
Spending billions of dong each year... just to temporarily keep the country
Faced with the problem of 2,000 hectares of rice waiting for "rescue", the Da Nang government has a policy of rebuilding the dam project to prevent salinity on the Vinh Dien River to keep the sweetness for production in the summer-autumn crop.
According to statistics, from 2013 to present, every year, Dien Ban town, the old Quang Nam province, now part of Da Nang city, has to spend from 3 to 4 billion VND to build a temporary sand dam on the Vinh Dien river, to prevent salinity to keep thousands of hectares of agricultural land and domestic water supply areas sweet. But this is just a seasonal project: when the rainy season comes, the dam is removed to return the flow to the flood.
In 2023, the dam proposed to bid but no unit participated because the sand price on the market was higher than the estimate. In 2025, the dam was swept away by storm No. 1 after it had just been completed (June 2025), forcing it to be re-paved again. Currently, the sand source is temporarily taken from the Co Co River dredging project, but cannot be maintained for a long time.
For many years, the Dien Ban government has proposed building a permanent salinity barrier dam or combining it with an irrigation bara, to save the budget and stabilize water resources. However, because Vinh Dien River is an inter-provincial river, under the management of the province, the locality does not have enough investment authority.
Mr. Tran Uc - former Chairman of the People's Committee of the old Dien Ban town - said that the town has repeatedly petitioned provincial departments and branches to agree on the policy, even proposing to combine dam investment when building the DH7 bridge and road but was not approved.
The reason given is that it is necessary to fully assess the environmental impact, ensuring that it does not affect the downstream flow, especially in the Da Nang city area. While waiting for the decision from the superiors, the town still has to continue to "do - dismantle - do again..." every year.
The cost of dam construction alone over the past 10 years has been more than 30 billion VND - enough to invest in a solid project if there is determination and consensus from the parties involved.
