As of now, 18 irrigation reservoirs managed and operated by the Đắk Nông Irrigation Works Exploitation One-Member Limited Company have completely run dry, leaving about 3,304 hectares of crops—including large areas of coffee—without sufficient water.
Đắk Nông Province currently has 310 irrigation facilities under the company’s management: 256 reservoirs, 33 weirs, 8 drainage canal systems, 11 pumping stations and 2 other irrigation works. The total designed storage capacity of the 256 reservoirs is about 182 million cubic meters, covering roughly 3,700 hectares of surface water area. At present, the total volume of water in these reservoirs and dams has fallen to around 87 million cubic meters, or only about 49% of their design capacity.
Reservoir water levels vary by district:
-
Cư Jút: 20.66% of design capacity
-
Krông Nô: 49.12%
-
Đắk Mil: 30.67%
-
Đắk Song: 55.28%
-
Gia Nghĩa City: 76.91%
-
Đắk Glong: 56.82%
-
Đắk R’lấp: 51.90%
-
Tuy Đức: 44.86%
To minimize drought damage, provincial authorities have implemented emergency measures such as regulating and supplementing water sources, installing temporary pumping stations, and taking advantage of whatever residual water remains in depleted reservoirs. Despite these efforts, the severe dry conditions cannot be fully countered.
Forecasts warn that if weather conditions do not improve, by the end of April the number of irrigation works running dry will increase to 20. Of these, 13 have drought-mitigation measures in place, while the remaining 7 have no such defenses.
Water levels and flows in rivers and streams across the province continue to trend downward, with many small streams in the northern areas already dry for months.
According to the Đắk Nông Department of Agriculture and Environment, the province’s current irrigation infrastructure can only supply water for about 27% of its total agricultural land, leaving the rest dependent on other water sources. Districts such as Đắk Mil, Cư Jút and Krông Nô are among the areas most frequently affected by seasonal drought.
To address the ongoing crisis, the Department has proposed that the central government invest in upgrading and repairing 37 irrigation works to provide irrigation for about 8,200 hectares of crops, and construct 57 new works to irrigate 12,700 hectares, with a total estimated cost of approximately 2.137 trillion VND (around 85 million USD).