1Chairperson of the Dam Safety Panel of Experts, Arup, London, UK
2Vice Chairperson of the Dam Safety Panel of Experts, Thuyloi University, Vietnam
Online published on 27 April, 2023.
With over 7,000 dams of different types and sizes Vietnam has a complex and evolving institutional-framework for dam safety. There are more than 750 large dams, with the number of small dams estimated to be more than 6,000.
The Government of Vietnam has established a sectorial program for dam safety in recognition of the importance of securing the foundations for sustained and secure economic growth. The program was-first launched in 2003, revised in 2009 and again revised in 2015, as part of the effort to revitalize the-program activities and targets. Based on information available from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), there are about 1,150 irrigation dams in need of urgent rehabilitation or upgrading until 2022. The program is currently being led by MARD Central Project Office (CPO), in collaboration-with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Provincial authorities with budget support from the national Government.
The Dam Rehabilitation and Safety Improvement Project (DRSIP) is designed to improve the safety of the dams and related works, as well as the safety of people and socio-economic infrastructure of the downstream communities. The project will also support Government to ensure a more holistic, basin level integrated development planning to improve institutional coordination, future development and operational-safety. The DRSIP objectives are to provide a mix of both structural and non-structural measures to-selected dams. Structural measures include the physical rehabilitation and upgrading safety work of-existing dams and appurtenant structures, including instrumentation and associated dam safety plans. Such physical works represent the largest part of the project budget (>80%).
Structural measures have been proposed for 442 dams in 34 provinces. These dams were identified through an iterative, consultative prioritization process with the national authorities and provincial agencies.
The paper describes the main findings based on inspection and rehabilitation of about 20 dams currently evaluated by the International Dam Safety Panel of Experts.
