Water is the national property which has been shared among the people in the community. And when a party conducts the behaviors that cause the harm to the others’ benefit, the others can sue the party for the behavior.
Dr. Vu Ngoc Long, Head of the Southern Bionomics Institute, Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Development (CBD), affirmed that both the local authorities and local people can come forward and sue the hydropower plants’ board of management for violating the natural resource law.
Hydropower plants’ designers set up very large tunnels and pipes that go through the mountains, carrying water from the main stream of river to the plants’ turbines. In principle, the water needs to flow in the pipes at steep slope and powerful intensity to be able to create big power.
However, this would create the “dead rivers” because the river’s water has been transferred to other places.
Therefore, he said, the mainstream diversion of the Vu Gia and Thu Bon rivers to provide water to the Dak Mi 4 hydropower plant, like many other hydropower projects, has caused harm to the environment. It may kill the entire ecosystem of the river whose water has been stolen.
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