Da Nang city to see water shortage

Severe water shortage in Hoa Vang district in central Da Nang city (Source: infonet)

The central city of Da Nang will face a shortage of clean water as the salinity of water produced by the Cau Do water plant has reached an alarming 13.568mg per litre.

This level of salinity is 63 times higher than usual.

Nguyen Minh Chinh, director of the plant, which is the city's major water supply, said the plant had to stop pumping water from the Cau Do river on July 28 due to the water's high salinity.

"The high salinity in Cau Do river is caused by water entering from the sea during high tide, while water from the upstream rivers of Vu Gia, Yen and Tuy Loan have yet to enter it," Chinh said.

"We had to collect water from the An Trach Pumping Station, which gets its water from the An Trach dam. However, the water level in the dam has fallen as of early this week," he said.

He said water from adjoining rivers could reduce the salinity of the Cau Do river.

The director also said the water plant's reservoir had dropped to 50 percent of its capacity, and so, the water supply for residents has fallen by 30 percent.

He said the plant collects 200,000 cubic metres of water from Cau Do river to provide clean water for the city's residents.

He warned that local residents should save water for the next few weeks due to the shortage of clean water.

Deputy Director of the city's Agriculture and Rural Development Department Huynh Van Thang blamed the operations of hydropower plants in upstream rivers for the deficit of clean water.

"The reservoirs of hydropower plants, including Song Tranh 2; Dak Mi 4; Song Bung 4,5 and 6; and A Vuong, have collected water from the rivers to generate power, thus restricting the water flow into the basin of the Cau Do river," Thang said.

"Meanwhile, the operation of reservoirs belonging to hydropower plants in the upstream Vu Gia-Thu Bon river system during the dry season has yet to take into account the demand for clean water from the river basin for residents and farmers," he said.

Thang said the department will discuss ways of handling the salinity of the Cau Do river with agencies in Quang Nam province.

The city plans to build the Hoa Lien water plant, with water collection from the Cu De river, to address the problem of limited clean water for 2 million residents and farmers.

Last year, the salinity of water at the plant reached an alarming high of 9.95mg per litre.-VNA