DaNang (VNA) - It is necessary to build dedicated hydro-meteorological networksin large reservoirs and install systems for monitoring reservoirs’ operation  in order to better ensure  dam safety, said Le Van Duong from the GeneralDepartment of Irrigation under the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Speakingat a recent conference on natural disaster prevention in the Central and CentralHighlands regions held in the central city of Da Nang, Duong underlined the urgentneed to construct monitoring stations for forecasting the real-time operation ofreservoirs in steep rivers where floods usually rise suddenly.

Henoted that guidelines for the development of reservoir operation procedures havenot yet met the actual operation of reservoirs.

The assessment of dam safety, the making of plans on flood prevention for downstreamareas, and the setting up of corridors to protect reservoirs requiresubstantial funding, beyond the affordability of dam and reservoir managementunits, he added.

Attention should also be paid to personal training in this field, promotingdissemination of legal regulations on dam safety, and raising public awarenessand response, Duong said.

Accordingto the General Department of Irrigation, around 12trillion VND (516.3 million USD) has been spent on upgrading and repairing 633reservoirs nationwide. However, there are still 1,200 seriouslydamaged others that need repair.

The department recommended more investment in improving the flood resistance oflarge reservoirs in line with international standards.

Priorityshould be given to repairing seriously degraded small reservoirs which have lowcapacity to discharge floodwater by using official development assistance (ODA)capital resources, and the central and local budgets, the department said.

As many as 450 reservoirs have been included in the list of those which will berepaired under a project to improve dam safety (WB8) with a total investment of433 million USD.

The MARD has also proposed the Prime Minister support 19 provinces in the Centraland Central Highlands in repairing and upgrading 47 reservoirs at a total cost of287 billion VND.

According to statistics from the General Department of Irrigation, the Central and Central Highlands regions have 3,551irrigation reservoirs, accounting for 53.4 percent of the country’s total number.

Localitieshaving the most reservoirs are Thanh Hoa with 610; Nghe An, 629 and Dak Lak,543.

The regions have 693 degraded reservoirs, or 58 percent of the country’s figure.Many of them, especially small ones, are not capable of resisting floods in linewith current standards.

They witnessed 38 dam and reservoir-related incidents out of 50 cases nationwidein the last decade, accounting for 76 percent.

In2017, heavy rains caused 16 dam and reservoir breakdowns in the regions.-VNA