People look forward to water from the trillion-dong irrigation project
The Krong Pac Thuong reservoir project, phase 2, has a total investment of 1,120.4 billion VND from the central budget managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment).
At this stage, investors will build 111.03km of irrigation canals for 12,750 hectares of cultivated land. Thereby, creating a source of water for daily life and livestock farming for people in Ea Kar and Krong Pac districts.
The northern main canal system is invested by a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. The total length of this canal is 12.63km and is under construction, expected to be completed in 2025.
In particular, the 27.4km long Malaysia35 canal is invested by the Dak Lak Province Traffic Construction Investment and Rural Development Project Management Board (Dak Lak Province Project Management Board). Ea Kar District Project Management Board is the investor to build 65.13km of level 1 and level 2 canals in the locality.
The Krong Pac District Project Management Board is the investor in the construction of 11.78km of level 2 and level 3 canals in the locality.
All of these canals have not yet been implemented due to problems with compensation and site clearance.
Research shows that the BN35 canal project is behind schedule. In particular, the construction contractor selection plan has not yet been approved.
Notably, the Krong Pac Thuong reservoir has blocked the water deposit at the end of 2023. However, except for the northern main canal system that is almost completed, other canals are stuck on the spot, lying on paper.
Meanwhile, people who are beneficiaries of the project are still waiting for the water source to lead to their cultivated land.
Mr. Dinh Nho Lam (Krong Pac district) shared: "In recent years, I have had to spend money to drill wells and pump water to irrigate 3.5 hectares of crops, which is money-consuming, and my family's economy cannot recover well. There are even times when there is a shortage of domestic water, so we have to buy it for use".
According to Mr. Lam, the people's biggest wish is the upper Krong rich reservoir to lead water to the fields to save money.
Mr. Le Dinh Chien, Vice Chairman of Ea Kar District People's Committee, commented: "To ensure that people in the upper Krong Pac reservoir project enjoy the sweet fruits from this project, the water channel system must be completed and put into operation soon".
Delay in site clearance
According to the investigation, at the conference on construction investment management in the first quarter of 2025, the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment reminded the District People's Committee and investors to delay site clearance. Thereby, affecting the project implementation progress as well as the disbursement of investment capital assigned by the Central Government in 2025.
A representative of the Dak Lak Provincial Project Management Board informed that to overcome the past delays, the unit has requested Ea Kar and Krong Pac districts to be responsible for speeding up the site clearance progress.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment soon approved the construction contractor selection plan. If further delays are detected, it will slow down the completion of the BN35 canal project, slow to promote the project's investment efficiency.
The Krong rich Thuong reservoir project, started in 2009 with a total initial investment of nearly 2,900 billion VND, is divided into two phases.
Due to problems in site clearance, at the end of 2018, the project's investment was adjusted to 4,421 billion VND.
By 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) will continue to allocate nearly VND1,120 billion to implement phase 2, extending from 2023 to 2026.
