Local scientists have just proposed the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to reassess the possible impacts on the environment caused by hydropower projects being developed on the Dong Nai River basin to ensure the sustainable use of water resources in the whole basin.
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The proposal came after a conference on “Upstream Forest and Dong Nai River Basin Management: Dong Nai Hydroelectricity Projects 6, 6A cases” organized by Vietnam Union of Science and Technology at Cat Tien National Park. Over 70 scientists from institutes, universities, and environmental non-government organizations participated in the conference.
According to scientists, in recent years, the rampant development of hydroelectricity in Vietnam in general and in the Dong Nai River basin in particular accelerated the exhaustion and unrecoverable degradation of water resources as well as the upstream biodiversity to an alarming level.
Regarding the controversial projects Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A, the scientists called for comprehensively assessing the social and environmental impacts and mapping out solutions to reduce the negative impacts on the environment as well as the ecological system in Cat Tien National Park.
The two projects to be developed by Duc Long Gia Lai Group J.S Company with a capacity of 241MW are forecast to encroach on 137 hectares of forest in the park.
At the above conference, after conducting real survey and collecting data, the scientists assumed that the environment impact statements of the two projects were not convincing enough as it did not cover necessary data such as changes to the ecological system, wildlife, migration and livelihoods, forest management and protection.
According to Institute of Tropical Biology, with a density of 14 hydropower plants in the 420-km-long section upstream, the Dong Nai River river would be divided into giant reservoirs, resulting in changes to the water flow with the imminent threats of flooding in the rainy season and shortage of water in the dry season.
(Source: SGT)
