A resident on the banks of the reservoir supplying the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station in YHen Bai province on June 13, 2023 in Vietnam (AFP/Nhac NGUYEN)
On the banks of the reservoir that supplies one of Vietnam’s main hydroelectric power stations, Dang Thi Phuong points to the cracked soil where the fish, the source of his income, lived before the drought.
After the heat wave, between a record heat in May (44.1 degrees Celsius) and an unprecedented drought, the water level in northern Vietnam reached the alert level, plunging the inhabitants who depend on aquatic resources into serious economic difficulties.
An abandoned boat on the cracked earth near the reservoir supplying the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station in Yen Bai province on June 13, 2023 in Vietnam (AFP/Nhac NGUYEN)
Scientists say global warming is exacerbating extreme weather, and Vietnam, like many countries in South and Southeast Asia, has suffered a prolonged heat wave in recent weeks.
At the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station in Yen Bai province, 160 kilometers north of the capital Hanoi, water in the reservoir is at its lowest level in 20 years, according to state media, at 15 20 cm below the minimum level necessary for the operation of the plant.
A fisherman in the Chay River near the reservoir supplying the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station in Yen Bai province on June 13, 2023 in Vietnam (AFP/Nhac NGUYEN)
The nearby Chay River is little more than a stream, the trickle of water having exposed the rocky bed.
“Normally, I can earn up to three million dong (115 euros) per month fishing in the lake, but now there is nothing left for me,” said Phuong, 42.
Even his buffaloes suffer from this shortage, no longer being able to bathe in the waters that have become shallow.
She also worries about her rice fields and her family.
– burns –
“We use water from a nearby well for our rice field. This year, it dried up,” she told AFP.
Dang Thi Phuong leads his buffaloes near the reservoir supplying the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station in Yen Bai province on June 13, 2023 in Vietnam (AFP/Nhac NGUYEN)
“If things continue like this, I fear that we will no longer have water for our daily life,” she said.
The drought has put a strain on the electricity supply in northern Vietnam, causing sudden and increasingly frequent power cuts that have hurt the economic sector.
This crisis is hitting the manufacturing sector in particular, crucial for the country, whose factories can no longer operate normally, according to leaders interviewed by AFP.
On the ground, Hoang Van Tien, a 60-year-old fisherman, said that although there were fish, it was too hot to stay on the water.
A fisherman on the reservoir supplying the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station in Yen Bai province on June 13, 2023 in Vietnam (AFP/Nhac NGUYEN)
“I’ve had this kind of drought before, but it wasn’t this hot,” he says.
“Today it’s too hot to go to the lake (to fish). The weather is too good, I sit on the boat with a hood to cover myself, but the heat rises from the water and burns my skin “
© 2023 AFP
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