Authorities in southern Dong Nai Province will submit scientific papers to the Government that back up its request to halt the construction of two hydro power plants that would eliminate 327ha of forest in Cat Tien National Park.
“We will give our data today to the Dong Nai Province’s Party Committee. It will describe the negative impact of the 6 and 6A power plant proposals to the Government,” said Vo Van Chanh, deputy chairman of the province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Chanh, speaking at a conference held yesterday by the department, said the plant would affect the environment and economy of the province.
The plants were to be built on the upper part of Dong Nai River. They would reclaim about 327ha of forest in Cat Tien National Park located in the province and its buffer zones in Binh Phuoc, Dak Nong and Lam Dong provinces.
In the Prime Minister’s national power strategy plan, the projects were scheduled to begin operation by 2015.
“We admit that the plants would help to ensure power security, but they will also create a negative impact, as we have outlined in our reports,” Chanh said.
The plants would affect the national park, which is located mostly in Dong Nai Province as well as the RAMSAR Convention site’s Bau Sau crocodile pond.
They would also limit the biodiversity of the local forest and create hindrances to forest protection.
The presence of the plants would not enable the park to receive World Heritage status from UNESCO, he said.
Tran Van Thanh, the park’s director, said the park submitted its application for the second time in September to UNESCO.
“The Bau Sau crocodile pond, where a large population of Indochina crocodile live, is a unique place. This is the only site where crocodiles live in the middle of the primary forest,” he said.
Other scientists said that entrance to the plants would enable illegal loggers to cut down forest trees in the park.
Dr Vu Ngoc Long, director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Development, said the plants would destroy the habitats of a wide range of rare species, including the Indochina crocodile, the endangered Normascus gabriellace, the endangered Orchidantha vietnamica and a newly discovered flora named Camellia longii.
The plants would change the hydrological conditions and natural flow of the river, resulting in a water supply shortage, flooding during the rainy season and a draught in the dry season.
A report by Assoc Prof Nguyen Van Phuoc of the HCM City-based Environment and Natural Resources Institute said the plants would not affect the water supply for people, agriculture or industry in the province. It would also not increase salination, he added.
However, Lam Dinh Uy, a coordinator of the Viet Nam River Network, pointed out that Phuoc’s report referred only to water volume and did not include hydrological changes to the river. Other scientists criticised the report’s research findings.
Chanh added that the plants would ruin the livelihoods and traditional culture of local ethnic minorities.
“I’m not sure the investor of the plants would bear the social impact. The ethnic minority groups would be driven away from their homes and land,” said Dr Long.
Chanh also said that the plants construction should be regulated by national laws on forest protection, water resources and biodiversity, and should be considered under the context of climate change.
Many of the scientists said that the case should be submitted to the National Assembly as Code 7 in Vietnamese Law on Bio-diversity.
This law requires approval by the assembly of any construction that reclaims more than 50ha of national parkland.
Earlier, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and several scientists discovered that the investor of the plants, Duc Long Gia Lai Group, had handed in improper environmental impact assessment documents.
The documents were found to be altered copies of other environmental assessment documents.
Hoang Van Thong of the province’s Environmental Protection Department said the construction of too many power plants on one river would have a severe impact.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will conduct inspections of power plants in the north late this year and in central and south regions next year.
Nineteen hydro power plants are located on the main stream of Dong Nai River and its tributaries.
