PREPARATIONS FOR construction of the Na Hang hydro power plant on the northern Lo river system began on 4 June 2002 with ground breaking for the building of a 42km road section linking the project site to provincial highway 176, the Vietnam News Agency reported on 6 June 2002.
The project to build the 300MW Na Hang plant in the highland province of Tuyen Quang's Na Hang district was approved by the government in April 2002. It will be the first hydroelectric power plant built on the Lo-Gam river system.
Apart from the task of generating 1.3B kWh of electricity a year, the plant has been designed to control and prevent floods for the capital city of Ha Noi and the Red river delta provinces before the construction of a large scale hydro power plant in the upper northern province of Son La. For this reason, about 25% of the project's total investment will be put into building anti-flood and water supply works.
A part of the Na Hang hydro power plant's reservoir has been designed to reduce regular floods. The project's designers said that the reservoir would help lower the average water level in the Lo river by between 1.4m and 2.2m and the flooding level by between 2.2m and 2.7m.
