The Song Giang 1, 2, 3 and 4 and Dak Se hydroelectric power plants, worth totally VND621.5 billion (US$34.5 million), would have been built on the Thanh River in the districts of Nam Giang and Phuoc Son.
According to Le Van Hue, deputy head of the Division of Electrical Energy Management at the provincial Industry and Trade Department, the projects would have occupied 63,300ha of the 200,000ha Song Thanh Eco Natural Reserve.
"The projects were approved by the provincial People’s Committee and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, formerly the Ministry of Industry," Hue said.
"We couldn’t thoroughly evaluate the projects’ impacts on the environment due to a shortage of funds.
"They should have been implemented in 2006 but we decided to halt them at that time as we received warnings about their negative effect on the environment from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the management board of the reserve," he said.
Hue said that if the projects were implemented, they could have wiped out thousands of rare animal and plant species. Of those, 38 species are listed as endangered flora and faunna in the Viet Nam Red Book, while 14 animals and two plant species are listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "Not only the ecosystem but also humans might be critically affected by the power plant construction projects," he said.
Le Minh Anh, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the projects would have destroyed swathes of pristine forest in the reserve.
"If the projects were implemented, a huge area of the reserve’s natural forest would disappear. So to eliminate the projects was the right decision," he said.
Anh said 10 other hydroelectric power plants on the Vu Gia-Thu Bon river system were also under consideration.
"We are carefully assessing them for their likely effect on the environment and people’s living conditions," Anh said.
P.Hoa