With a huge amount of investment from the State, which in 2008 had reached almost 4 trillion VND (208 million USD), so far the Central Highlands has managed to build 1,819 irrigation projects to service over 206,000 ha of crops.

By the end of this year, an additional 40 irrigation projects are expected to become operational to increase the acreage of irrigated land to 287,023 ha of assorted crops.

As a result, the drought stricken region has managed to eradicate chronic hunger and has become self-sufficient in food as well as cashing in on its basaltic soil to emerge as the nation’s No 1 coffee producer with an annual output of almost 1 million tonnes of beans.

The local irrigation network also serves residential areas and industrial parks. The Bla Dam, for example, provides safe water for Kon Tum town in Kon Tum province while the Bien Ho Reservoir serves Pleiku city in Gia Lai province and the Dak Hin Reservoir services the resort city of Da Lat in Lam Dong province.
The Central Highlands plans to increase investments in irrigation projects along with upgrading the existing works that serve agricultural production and control natural disasters in order to improve the living conditions of ethnic minority groups, who make up the majority of the regions population./.