At 1am on December 29, the water level in the Red River was only 0.66m - a new low-level record. One month ago, the level was at 0.76m, which was said to be the lowest level in 107 years of city records.
Dang Ngoc Tinh, from the National Centre for Hydrometeorology, said that the river is too dry because reservoirs are now storing water to prepare for power generation. While at 1am, hydro-power plants were operating at low capacity so the volume of water discharged was low, combined with a low flood tide, so the water level was only 0.66m. By 7am of the same day, the water level increased to 1.44m.
Dang Duy Hien from the Irrigation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the water level in the Red River depends on the flood tide and power generation of hydro-power plants so it changes several times in a day.
Due to such little rain this year and the rainy season finishing early, not only the Red River but other rivers, lakes and reservoirs are exhausted. The Tuyen Quang reservoir still lacks 1.1 billion cu.m of water while the Thac Bac reservoir is short of 1.3 billion cu.m and the Hoa Binh reservoir lacks nearly 200 million cu.m. Many other major reservoirs in the northern region are only filled up to 80 percent of their capacity compared to the same time in 2008.
Hien said that the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) has committed to discharge around 2 billion cu.m of water to relieve the drought in the northern region and serve the winter-spring crop.
Specifically, EVN will discharge water three times, from January 26 to February 3, February 7-13 and from February 22 until fields having enough water.
During these periods, the water level in the Red River will reach at least 2.2m.
MARD has decided to replace rice with other crops in 50,000ha of land, 20,000 ha more than originally planned.
Le Van Luong, director of the Riverway Management Company No.6, said that boats can still travel on the Red River, except some certain times when the water level goes down.