For many years, people in Cao Bang province have been worried about living under irrigation dams. This worry comes from the fact that the dams in Cao Bang were built a long time ago and have been damaged after a long time of use.
PV had a live recording session at Ban Viet Lake (Trung Khanh District) - one of the important reservoirs of Cao Bang Province. The lake was built in 1971 with a surface area of about 5 hectares, ensuring irrigation water for 163 hectares of agricultural land. After a long period of use, under the impact of storms and rains, the lake has now shown many damaged spots. The overflow has a seepage phenomenon, water flows into some weak positions of the concrete bottom of the lake.
According to the inspection results of the professional sector of Cao Bang province, the sloping wall and the sloping rock foundation of Ban Viet lake have a large permeability coefficient, exceeding the allowable level, and the foundation below the bottom slab is hollow.
Besides, the management road is a dirt road, in the rainy season it is often muddy and subsides in many places, the management house is seriously degraded, there is a lack of equipment for management and operation, and there is no monitoring equipment.
The Cao Bang Provincial Irrigation Department (Cao Bang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) has recommended solutions for grouting to waterproof the dam body and spillway, expanding the dam crest, repairing the drainage rock pile, installing monitoring equipment and rebuilding the management house.
Another location is Phia Gao Lake, Duc Long Commune (Hoa An District). This structure also suffered from severe seepage at an elevation of 1/3 of the dam height or more, the upstream stone slab collapsed, the downstream slab and drainage ditch were damaged, many places on the dam slab were eroded, and there was no drainage rock pile.
Having lived downstream of Phia Gao Lake for more than 20 years, Mr. Hoang Van Dao (Duc Long Commune) has witnessed the deterioration of this irrigation lake day by day. He shared that Phia Gao Lake was built in the 1980s and has been damaged for a long time, but he saw that inspection teams kept coming to inspect it and then leaving it there, without any repairs. Living right downstream of the stream, he and everyone else in the commune are very worried.
Currently, the investment policy of these two projects has been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Decision No. 1421/QD-BNN dated April 7, 2023, with a total investment of more than 50 billion VND. It is known that the irrigation system in Cao Bang province mostly has small and scattered irrigation areas. The projects are located in complex terrain with large slopes, so they are easily affected by natural disasters.
As a mountainous province, local funding for irrigation development is very limited. Repairing, upgrading, and maintaining these works requires large capital, causing many difficulties.
According to the Irrigation Department, the cost to renovate the lakes is quite large, so the units have repeatedly requested the Cao Bang Provincial People's Committee to arrange funds for repairs.
According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cao Bang province, at the beginning of the rainy season in 2024, 9/23 dams and reservoirs were inspected and some items were found to be damaged and at risk of being unsafe. The Department has proposed to leaders at all levels, hoping that the Department of Irrigation will pay attention and report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to consider annual funding support to repair and upgrade damaged and degraded works. The total funding requirement for these items is nearly 592 billion VND.
