Hai Duong proactively fights drought early and from afar

Many disadvantages

According to the Hai Duong Province Irrigation Works Exploitation One Member Co., Ltd., in recent years, the process of bringing water to flood and irrigate the winter-spring crop, especially in Binh Giang, Cam Giang, Thanh Mien districts and Chi Linh city, often encountered difficulties and disadvantages such as water shortage, water pollution, water salinity exceeding the allowable level...

Last winter-spring crop from January to March, the water level in Bac Hung Hai area was often low and polluted. From March 5 to 19, the water on Kim Son, Trang Ky, Tay Ke Sat, Dinh Dao, Cuu An rivers... was polluted to heavily polluted, the water was black and smelled foul. Most of the factories in Bac Hung Hai area had to close the water intake sluices to prevent polluted water from entering the main canals of the fields.

For areas that take water from lakes in Chi Linh City such as Phu Loi, Ben Tam, and Ho Ven, there have been times when there has been a shortage of water. In 2025, rainfall is forecast to be lower than the same period many years ago, with little or no water source to the lake, so the risk of drought may occur.

The process of serving winter-spring crop production in recent years shows that around March and April every year, in the Bac Hung Hai River area (through Binh Giang, Thanh Mien, Cam Giang districts), the water source is often polluted, due to factories and industrial parks in Hung Yen province flowing into Hai Duong province. At Cau Xe sluice, An Tho (Tu Ky) is salty and cannot take water back.

Meanwhile, the salinity concentration at the gates of Cau Xe and An Tho sluices at many times exceeded the allowable threshold, so many pumping stations could not take water to irrigate rice fields. The highland areas of Bac Hung Hai area in Binh Giang, Cam Giang, Gia Loc districts... are therefore also in a state of water shortage for irrigation.

For other gravity irrigation areas in tidal areas, in recent years, water resources have tended to decline, and saltwater intrusion has come earlier, leading to low gravity water supply capacity and many difficulties.

It is forecasted that from January to March 2025, the average temperature in Hai Duong area will generally be approximately the same as last year's average. The weather and climate in the winter-spring crop of 2024 - 2025 will have many complicated developments. Water levels in rivers will change slowly with a downward trend. Water resources in rivers and reservoirs will generally be slightly lower than the average of many years.

The current irrigation season is very urgent, requiring short irrigation time, many projects cannot meet the demand. Meanwhile, the province's production area needs a large amount of irrigation water with nearly 51,000 hectares of rice, more than 17,455 hectares of rice seedlings, vegetables, conversion areas, more than 7,212 hectares of industrial crops, fruit trees, medicinal plants and more than 9,851 hectares of aquaculture.

"With so many disadvantages, the development and implementation of a plan to prevent drought in the winter-spring crop is necessary and urgent. Up to now, we have deployed this plan to each district-level Irrigation Works Exploitation Enterprise; clearly identifying risks, situations and specific drought prevention solutions for each district, town and city", Ms. Nguyen Thi Tu, Deputy General Director of the Provincial Irrigation Works Exploitation One Member Co., Ltd. emphasized.

Deploying key plans

In the 2023-2024 winter-spring crop, Binh Giang is a "hot spot" for drought. Due to the influence of many causes, including the heavily polluted rivers in the Bac Hung Hai system, more than 500 hectares of production land in this district have suffered from severe drought.

Anticipating similar difficulties that may occur, the Binh Giang District Irrigation Works Exploitation Enterprise has proactively developed a key plan to combat drought in the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop.

Director of the District Irrigation Works Exploitation Enterprise Dao Van Dong said that the unit has developed many plans to respond to cases ranging from severe to extremely severe and force majeure droughts. "The enterprise has developed very specific measures when it does not rain, the water level of the rivers is low, pollution and salinity cannot bring water into the fields. The focus is to rent and install field pump sets to pump water from safe areas into the fields and continue to use internal pumping stations to distribute to drought areas," said Mr. Dong.

Based on the local production plan and planting season, the Irrigation Works Exploitation Enterprise of districts, towns and cities has also developed a plan to manage water resources suitable for each production area. For areas that may not have enough water for rice cultivation, it is recommended to change crops accordingly.

Mr. Bui Quang Bac, Director of the Cam Giang District Irrigation Works Exploitation Enterprise, said that the unit has proactively reviewed, repaired, and upgraded 17 pumping stations managed by the unit to proactively take full advantage of high tides and water discharges from hydroelectric reservoirs to lead and store water early into the intra-field canal system. This is one of the key solutions to overcome the possible drought. This requires maximum mobilization of machinery, equipment, and human resources and is also more costly, but is necessary.

The Provincial Irrigation Works Exploitation One Member Co., Ltd. requests enterprises to pump water, lead water, and store water into the inland systems before December 31. Carry out concentrated flooding from January 15 to February 25, 2025. For the highland areas of Cam Giang, Binh Giang, Thanh Mien, and Gia Loc districts with difficulties in water resources, proactively pump the floodwaters early...