On October 8, officials of Tan Thanh and Lien Ha communes (Lam Ha District, Lam Dong Province) reported that the sudden water impoundment at the Dong Nai 2 Hydropower Plant left residents no time to react, causing hundreds of hectares of nearly harvest-ready coffee—along with many homes and other property—to be submerged.
Earlier, on September 17, Trung Nam Hydropower Joint Stock Company, the investor of the Dong Nai 2 project, notified the Lam Ha District People’s Committee about plans to begin filling the reservoir. The People’s Committees of Tan Thanh and Lien Ha communes received the notice on September 19, and by September 21 the plant had already started impounding water. According to local leaders and residents, this short notice and rapid action were far too sudden for people to prepare.
Preliminary statistics from the two communes show that about 300 hectares of coffee, not yet harvested, were drowned; many residents had time only to “abandon their belongings and run for safety,” without relocating houses or possessions. The estimated damage amounts to hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong. Meanwhile, the project’s investor has yet to complete compensation and support for the affected people.
On October 8, a reporter from SGGP Newspaper visited the Dong Nai 2 hydropower reservoir area and recorded images of the damage caused by the impoundment.