Drought in the North is getting worse

In the next season, the Northern and midland provinces continue to face serious shortage of water for production when the Red River - the largest river in the North, the main source of irrigation water for the plain rice bowl Tonkin - is gradually in the bottom.

This is the third consecutive winter-spring crop of the Red River Delta to enter production in a drought condition and it is worrying that the severity of drought each year is severe.

In the 2004-2005 winter-spring crop - the year considered the most severe in the past 40 years in the North, at the same time, the Red River water level in Hanoi is still at 2.1-2.2 m. . But this year, the water level of the Red River in Hanoi has dropped to 1.6 m - the lowest level over the same period in more than 100 years.

Long Bien Bridge on Red River is bare.
(Photo: TPO)

According to the Central Center for Meteorological and Hydrological Forecasting, due to the prolonged drought and the absence of floods, it is forecasted that in the coming time, the Red River water level will continue to be in short of the average of many years. The water level in Hanoi will have many days at below 2m and the lowest level at 1.4m. The water source to ensure waterway operation is still very difficult and as such, the source of irrigation water for agricultural production will be even more difficult.

Reservoirs in midland and mountainous areas are also gradually exhausted. From the beginning of the year until now, rainfall in mountainous areas reached only 80-95% compared to the average of many years, the midland and plain areas reached 60-75%, making the water levels of reservoirs much lower than design level.

Most of the reservoirs in the area do not have enough water level, in which many reservoirs in Bac Giang and Ha Tay have only reached 50-70% of the design. The flow in rivers and streams is also 15-30% lower than the average of many years and is continuing to decline rapidly.

With the above situation, it is expected that the winter-spring crop 2006-2007 of the midland and northern delta provinces will have about 142,000-242,000 ha of difficulties in irrigation water sources, concentrated mainly in Phu Tho, Bac Giang and Vinh provinces. Phuc, Ha Tay, Hung Yen and Hai Duong. There are still 123,000 ha of irrigation water in localities with large irrigation works.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently approved a budget of VND 21 billion for emergency dredging of some water channels of the Bac Hung Hai, Song Nhue and Bac Nam Ha irrigation systems to serve Country of production and living.

Functional departments have also coordinated to calculate and regulate the discharge of Tuyen Quang lake, power generation of Hoa Binh and Thac Ba reservoirs to supplement water sources and increase water levels downstream of the Red-Thai Binh river system to keep ink stable water.