At noon on 17/7, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued an official dispatch requesting the director of the Hoa Binh Hydropower Company to open the third bottom outlet at 3 p.m. today. The first bottom outlet was opened on 9/7, and the second on 15/7.

The decision to open three bottom outlets at the Hoa Binh dam is based on the operating procedures for the interconnected reservoirs in the Red River basin. The current upstream water level of Hoa Binh reservoir is 104.4 m, more than 20 m higher than the dead water level and 12 m below the normal flood level.

Hoa Binh dam opens a spillway on 11/7. Photo: Gia Chinh

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has requested that 12 provinces and cities, including Hoa Binh, Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Hung Yen, Ha Nam, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, and Ninh Binh immediately inform local authorities and residents about the flood discharge so they can take proactive preventative measures.

The Hoa Binh hydropower plant has a capacity of 1,920 MW with 8 generating units and 12 spillways. The Hoa Binh reservoir has an area of approximately 208 km2 and a total storage capacity of over 9.45 billion m3 of water.

Previously, in 8/2024, the Hoa Binh dam opened 4 bottom outlets. By September, after Typhoon Yagi, the dam opened three spillways. The water levels in the Day, Tich, and Bui rivers were high at that time, causing the drainage process in the low-lying areas outside Hanoi to be slower than expected. Tens of thousands of residents in the former districts of Chuong My, Thach That, and Quoc Oai continued to live with the floods.

Gia Chinh