Thanh Hoa: Cẩm Thủy 1 hydropower plant failure kills 3.8 tonnes of caged fish

A jammed gate at the Cẩm Thủy 1 hydropower plant in Thanh Hoa caused the reservoir to fall so quickly that local fish cages were left stranded on mud. About 3.8 tonnes of farmed fish died, residents reported.

The incident occurred around noon on Sept. 5, when the plant began closing a bottom outlet gate that had previously been opened as part of normal operations. One gate could not close because a tree root had wedged into it, trapping the gate leaf.

Workers fixed the problem at about 1:30 p.m. and closed the gate. During the period when it remained open, water levels in the reservoir dropped rapidly. Several fish cages belonging to residents ran dry and were left exposed on the muddy bed.

Cẩm Tú commune authorities and Thanh Hoa's Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine inspected the area and recorded residents' reports of roughly 3.8 tonnes of dead caged fish. Commune Chairman Phạm Minh Vũ said the reservoir's water level had returned to normal by Sept. 6.

Intracom operates the plant, which stands on the Mã River in Cẩm Tú commune. The facility has a designed capacity of 28.8 megawatts from two generating units and represented an investment of about 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong. Its first unit joined the national grid in late 2018.