Bac Kan: Irrigation works wait for WB8

Lack of irrigation works

Bac Kan is a mountainous province, with more than 80% of the people living by agricultural and forestry production with a total area of nearly 486,000 hectares. The land for agricultural production is more than 44,000 hectares (accounting for only about 9%). But the area of land supplied water from irrigation works is less than 50%. As a result, the people mainly depend on rainwater or other industrial crops instead of rice.

The places where there is a shortage of water for irrigation in Bac Kan province are Sy Binh, Vu Muon, Cao Son communes of Bach Thong district; Hiep Luc, Thuong Quan, Duc Van, Bang Van, Coc Dan of Ngan Son district; and some other communes of Ba Be, Pac Nam, and Na Ri districts.

There are many reasons for the failure to invest in irrigation works in the localities mentioned above. But the most critical problem is that the budget of Bac Kan province is minimal. It has to rely on the investment resources of the Central and donor organizations.

Bac Kan is a poor province. Infrastructure is still lacking, and rural infrastructure has not been invested. In particular, the irrigation system for production is mainly small water reservoirs, which do not meet the requirements of agricultural production. As a result, farmers face many difficulties in agricultural production due to their dependence on natural rainwater.

With the amount of up to trillions of dong from the Government's capital sources, from Programs 135, 30a, 3PAD, or loan from ADB bank... Bac Kan province has planned and built irrigation works for water serving to agricultural production.

Over 20 years of construction and development, Bac Kan province has invested in building a number of irrigation works with capacity reaching several hundred hectares or more such as Deo But lake, Thom Trao lake (Cho Moi), Ban Chang lake (Ngan Son), Vang Giang dam, a cluster of Southeast irrigation projects, Nam Cuong irrigation works (Cho Don), Cam Bang irrigation works, Khuoi Khe lake (Na Ri), Nam Cut Lake (Bac Kan City)… In addition, there are thousands of other canal works.

Many irrigation works are unsafe

Mr. Nguyen Trong Uyen, Deputy Director of Bac Kan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that at present, irrigation reservoirs in the province are still operating, basically meeting the water supply for crops.

However, the works were built in the 80s of the last century, so there are signs of deterioration over time. Especially in recent years, due to climate change and unpredictable weather, irrigation works are at high risk of dam safety, threatening to cause damage to people's lives and properties. In addition to 5 works being repaired, several irrigation reservoirs are deteriorating and have not yet had the funds to repair.

Na Don lake in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province was built in 1986. After nearly 40 years of construction, exploitation, and use, up to now, the main dam route has revealed severe damage and deterioration.

Also, in Thanh Van commune, another irrigation lake, Tan Minh lake, is irrigating an area of ​​nearly 46 hectares of agricultural land. The current construction is also degraded, such as the dam surface has many subsidence positions, the downstream roof does not have surface water drainage ditches.

Khuon Sao Irrigation Reservoir in Nhu Co Commune was built in 1990 and repaired once in 2015. The 3.5-meter wide dam has been reinforced but is now degraded. It is necessary to refinish the dam surface to ensure convenience for the operation and management. The downstream roof has no surface drainage ditches, no drainage rock piles to seep into the dam body.

WB8 helps Bac Kan province protect thousands of hectares of agricultural land

According to Mr. Uyen, many irrigation works in Bac Kan urgently need to be repaired and upgraded. Still, the province faces difficulties, so they cannot allocate capital from the local budget. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development advises the Provincial People's Committee to propose funding from the Dam Rehabilitation and safety improvement project - WB8 (of the World Bank).

There are 34 irrigation reservoirs in Bac Kan province and about 2,400 dams, canal systems, and small pumping stations to serve irrigation for about 20,000 hectares of agricultural land. From mid-2020 until now, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Kan province has conducted a detailed inspection of each irrigation project.

Through inspection, the large and medium-sized irrigation reservoirs are operating well, without water seepage through the dam body, ensuring the amount of water for irrigation to serve agricultural production. However, an unsafe situation appeared among small irrigation works built over 30 years, even 60 years ago. There are 9 damaged works, 4 lakes have collapsed dam roof, upstream and downstream slopes; 3 lakes have dam body flooded, causing high unsafety.