Cẩm Thủy 1 Hydropower Plant Incident Causes Sudden Water Drop, Killing 4.2 Tons of Caged Fish

A sudden drop in the Cẩm Thủy 1 hydropower reservoir left fish cages stranded along the shore and killed 4.2 tons of farmed fish belonging to 35 households in Thanh Hóa Province.

The incident occurred between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on September 5 in the area upstream from the plant. The water level in the Mã River fell so quickly that fish farmers could not move their cages with the receding water. Many cages became stuck in shallow areas, leaving the fish exposed to mud and deprived of oxygen.

Lê Văn Tiến, director of Thanh Hóa’s Department of Agriculture and Environment, said the department had sent officials to work with local authorities and calculate the damage. The provincial Livestock and Veterinary Sub-Department said no further fish deaths were recorded from 1:30 p.m. on September 5 through 4 p.m. the following day, after the river’s water level returned to normal.

The Cẩm Tú commune administration said the plant had been closing a bottom-release gate when one gate failed to shut because a tree trunk carried by the current became lodged in it. The provincial veterinary authority asked the commune and Cẩm Thủy 1 Hydropower Plant to establish the precise cause of the sudden upstream decline and develop measures to protect local production in line with regulations.

Cẩm Thủy 1, invested in by Intracom Group, is a run-of-river hydropower project on the lowest step of the Mã River cascade. It has two generating units and a designed capacity of 28.8 megawatts, with total investment of 1.3 trillion dong.

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As soon as we learned of the information, the department sent people to coordinate with the local authorities to count the losses from the caged fish.