Dong Nai appeals to PM Dung to stop Hydropower Projects

01:07, 06/07/2013

Dong Nai provincial People’s Committee on July 4 sent an appeal to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asking to stop Dong Nai 6 and 6A Hydropower Projects from being built.

 

 

Dong Nai provincial People’s Committee on July 4 sent an appeal to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asking to stop Dong Nai 6 and 6A Hydropower Projects from being built.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, the Duc Long Gia Lai Group is seeking license for construction of Dong Nai 6 and 6A Plants despite having violated many regulations and laws of international conventions.

Specifically, the two projects will compromise 137.5 hectares of core zone in the Cat Tien National Park in Lam Dong Province.

Water accumulation in the plants reservoirs will submerge hundreds of hectares of natural forest with rare biodiversity and affect living environment of the indigenous fauna and flora species.

The two projects have also put on hold Vietnam’s attempt in seeking UNESCO recognition of Cat Tien National Park as a world natural heritage site.

These negative impacts infringe Cultural Heritage Law, Biodiversity Law, Forest Protection and Development Law, and Environment Protection Law of Vietnam and ignore Government Decree on preservation and sustainable development of Ramsar sites, issued in 2003.

They also break regulations of UNESCO’s ‘Man and the Biosphere Program’.

The People’s Committee of Dong Nai Province has thus appealed to the Ministers of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Natural Resources and Environment; to request the National Assembly and the Prime Minister to stop the above said Hydropower Projects and remove them from all future plans.

This would be in accordance with Resolution 7 of the 9th Central Party Committee on climate change and natural resource management and environment protection.

(Source: SGGP)