Pumping station to practice rice rescue
In the past, hot weather such as fire and strong southwest wind (Lao wind) have increased the degree of aridity and heat, which has caused many areas where summer and autumn rice are grown in Nghe An to be severely dry, especially land in the late part of the year. Channel. By this time, almost 2,000 hectares of summer-autumn rice have withered. Therefore, the pumping stations are working at full speed to combat the drought and help farmers conserve rice.
The water pumping station in Kim Lien Township (Nam Dan District) is operating at full capacity.
At the 4AC electric pumping station in Kim Lien Township, Nam Dan District, the machine runs at full speed day and night to bring water to the field to counteract the drought of the rice crops. Mr. Nguyen Trung Chinh – Manager of 4AC Pumping Station said: The station manages 10 pumping stations in the system, including 3 machines with a capacity of 3,600 m3/hour.
The 4AC pumping station system pumps water for more than 1,000 hectares of summer-autumn rice in Kim Lien Township, Hung Tien Township, Xuan Lam Township (Nam Dan District) and part of Hung Dao Township in Hung Nguyen District. In the past few days, all 10 pumping stations in the system had to run continuously from 18 to 20 hours a day. All employees are assigned to each other, some people are on duty to operate the machine, the rest are near each canal to pump water into each foot of the field.
Due to the ongoing drought, the water from the Lam River flows through the Nam Dan Bara to the Hoang Cam Canal. The water source is unstable, sometimes falling so low that the pumps sometimes have to stop working to wait for the tide to continue. pumpable. There are hot days like streaming fire, the south-west wind blows strongly, in the morning the water has just been pumped out, in the afternoon the field has dried up.
The pumping system in Nghe An in many places was built a long time ago, so it is old, uses electricity and works poorly. Picture: Quang An.
Mr. Nguyen Son Tra, Director of Nam Dan Irrigation Enterprise said: The company has 19 electric pumping stations along the Lam River to irrigate 2,500 hectares of rice in Nam Dan district. For the past few days, workers and brothers and sisters have been at the station to keep the pump running. There was a time when the water level of the River Lam was too low that pumping was difficult and the workers operating the machine had to be on the job waiting for the tide to rise to continue pumping can.
According to the report by the Nam Dan District Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the entire district has more than 100 electric pumping stations working 24 hours a day at full capacity to provide water for irrigating 5,400 hectares of summer-autumn rice. Due to the hot sun for days, the unstable water source and the strong southwest wind, some places are far from the pumping station, such as Nam Anh, Nam Xuan, Hung Tien, Xuan Lam, Kim Lien… About 500-600ha of rice It will certainly be difficult be able to get enough water for irrigation, and the risk of dehydration is inevitable if there is no rain in the coming days.
Mr. Nguyen Kien, head of Dai Thanh Irrigation Cluster in Yen Thanh Rice District, which belongs to Yen Thanh District Irrigation Company, said Dai Thanh Irrigation Cluster employs nine workers who are responsible for operating two pumping stations to irrigate 465 ha of rice fields in five Municipalities responsible are Dai Thanh, Ly Thanh, My Thanh, Lien Thanh and Minh Thanh. In the past period, all the workers and brothers and sisters have taken turns keeping the machines running 24 hours a day to have enough water to irrigate the rice crops in the five communities mentioned above.
Many summer-autumn paddy fields at the end of the canal in Nghi Loc district have dried up.
“In order to irrigate well, we follow the motto: upland areas and remote areas irrigate first; Lowland areas and areas near irrigation later. When the pump is working, be careful not to let the water overflow the sewer, which will lead to wasted water and electricity consumption,” said Mr. Kien.
Yen Thanh planted 12,800 hectares of rice in this year’s summer-autumn harvest. To proactively prevent severe droughts early in the harvest, the district has directed the irrigation company and agricultural service cooperatives, as well as specialized irrigation groups in the communities, to actively pump reserve water into the ponds. Lakes, Swamps, Dead Waters End rivers and canal systems and direct all communities in the district to smoothly dredge canals and prepare field pumps to help against drought if needed.
Fighting drought and saving rice are the top tasks
According to Nghe An Irrigation Subdepartment, the water supply for irrigation of this year’s summer-autumn crop will surely face many difficulties due to severe heat and drought. Meanwhile, water reserves in 1,061 dams and 22 hydroelectric power plants have lower water levels than any other year in the same period. Specifically, Ban Ve hydroelectric reservoir – the largest reservoir in the north-central region with a planned capacity of up to 1.81 billion m3 of water, but currently the water level of the lake is only around 156/155 m, which is 1 m higher than the water level .
Many rivers in Nghe An Province have very low water levels. Picture: Quang An.
In order to ensure irrigation water for the summer-autumn harvest, Nghe An Irrigation Subdivision has assigned staff to each district, city and township irrigation company to manage over 500 electric pumping stations operated by irrigation units and a number of stations operated by Cooperatives are working 24/7 at full capacity to help farmers fight drought and save rice.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An is spending this period focusing on drought prevention and crop protection, with the top priority being to end the drought for the current summer and autumn rice crops with the spirit of urgency and drastic savings to fight. , don’t let it The rice is dying due to the drought.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has mobilized most of the managers, technical staff of the Ministry’s office and officials of the branches and centers under the direction of the Ministry in the districts, cities, townships and irrigation companies to check the situation of water sources, degree of drought , Possibility of salt water intrusion. From there, propose countermeasures and organize and lead the implementation. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An pays particular attention to measures such as: good management of water sources, prevention of leakage and water loss from reservoirs, dams to canals, reasonable and economical distribution of irrigation water and regular control. Check the salt concentration of rivers with estuaries that flow into the sea to promptly notify pumping stations to shut down operations.
It is very difficult to get water to pump summer-autumn rice because the river water is low. Picture: Quang An.
The main difficulty for the electric pumping system in Nghe An Province today is that there are many pumping stations built in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s of the 20th century which are now run down and using a lot of electricity. It just works inefficiently.
According to the forecast of Nghe An Irrigation Sub-department, it is likely that this year’s summer and autumn rice harvest in Nghe An will be inevitable if the hot weather continues as it is now, and many areas will lack water for irrigation in the rice season. From the summer of July, rice plants need water during this period. This is a major challenge for the irrigation industry in Nghe An.