The two hydropower projects planned to be built on the Dong Nai River would adversely impact the environment and life of people living along the river, scientists warned at a seminar held in Dong Nai province
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| A family lives on the bank of Dong Nai River, where Dong Nai 6 hydropower plant is planned to be built. |
Prof. Dr Le Huy Ba, Director of the Institute for Science, Technology and Environmental Management, said building the Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6 A plants would be detrimental to the natural development of the river.
“The fact that the projects are approved to be located in Cat Tien National Park may create a bad precedent,” he warned further.
People living in the areas to be taken over for the plants are worried since a large area of forests would be cut down and the water flow would be affected, Nguyen Tat Do, deputy head of the province Fatherland Front Committee’s Organization, Propaganda and Training Board, said.
This would have an impact on waterway transport, increase saltwater intrusion into the river, and damage the biodiversity, he said.
“Local people want the forest area to be maintained,” Do said.
Scientists and researchers on a field trip to an area in the Cat Tien National Park, where two hydro projects will be developed if they are approved
Some other delegates pointed out that the projects contravened the 2008 Law on Biological Diversity, which stipulates that only defense and security works can be undertaken in conservation zones like the Cat Tien National Park.
Do also said location was one of the environmental criteria foreign banks considered before financing hydropower projects.
For instance, since the Dong Nai 5 project was located just a kilometer from the Cat Tien National Park, a world biosphere reserve, many foreign banks had refused to lend for it, he said.
A part of the proposed projects would be located inside the park, something not friendly to nature or done anywhere in the world, he added.
Vo Van Chanh, deputy director of the province Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said locating the plants there would also be detrimental to getting UNESCO recognition of Cat Tien as a world natural heritage.
The two plants’ investor is the Duc Long Gia Lai Group, which is headquartered in Pleiku City, the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.
A herd of gayals in the Cat Tien National Park, 150 km north of Ho Chi Minh City.
(Source: TTNews)
