Da Nang Asks 5 Hydropower Plants to Hold Water Until 11 Nov

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes · Last updated: 7 November 2026

Five Da Nang hydropower plants in the Vu Gia – Thu Bon river basin should stop generating electricity, or run at minimum water release, until 11 November 2026, the city government has asked. The goal is to keep water in their reservoirs so that farms and households downstream have enough during the 2027 dry season. The Da Nang City People's Committee sent the request on 5 November to the National Power System Operation and Electricity Market Company Limited. The plants named are Song Tranh 2, A Vuong, Song Bung 2, Song Bung 4 and Dak Mi 4. Reservoir levels are already very low, the committee said, and El Niño forecasts put the basin's risk of water scarcity at high to very high.

Why Da Nang Wants Five Dams to Store Rather Than Generate

The Da Nang City People's Committee put its request in writing on 5 November 2026. The document went to the National Power System Operation and Electricity Market Company Limited. It dealt with how hydropower plants in the Vu Gia – Thu Bon river basin should be run while water for homes and farms is under threat.

Five plants are named: Song Tranh 2, A Vuong, Song Bung 2, Song Bung 4 and Dak Mi 4. The committee's first preference is that none of them be called on to generate. Where running them cannot be avoided, it wants the water passing through their turbines held to the minimum, and that restraint kept up until 11 November 2026.

The logic is simple. A hydropower plant makes electricity by releasing water from its reservoir, so every unit of power sent to the grid now is water that cannot be saved for later. By pausing or throttling output, the city hopes the reservoirs can build reserves ahead of the 2027 dry season, when downstream farming and household supply will depend on what was stored.

The committee presents the move as a proactive step, and the timing supports that description. But Da Nang has asked; it has not ordered. Whether the operator agrees, and how fully, is the open question.

How El Niño and Empty Reservoirs Raise the Drought Risk

The request comes as the city braces for months ahead in which drought could bring water shortages and seawater could creep into its rivers. That creeping, known as saltwater intrusion, occurs when river flow drops so low that the sea pushes further inland, spoiling water meant for drinking and irrigation.

Forecasts cited by the city say El Niño could raise the risk of water scarcity across the Vu Gia – Thu Bon basin, and they rate that risk as high to very high. El Niño is a periodic warming of the tropical Pacific that shifts rainfall patterns in many parts of the world.

The same warnings list factors that could make matters worse: long heatwaves, a 2027 rainy season that begins late, reservoirs holding too little, and upstream flow that keeps declining. These compound one another. A delayed rainy season stretches the period over which stored water has to last, while hot weather adds to demand.

The starting position is weak. Water in the basin's hydropower reservoirs is very low at present, the committee said. Without a change in how the dams are operated, it judged there is a genuine chance they will not gather enough to cover farming and domestic supply downstream through the 2027 dry season.

Can Da Nang Balance Power Output Against Downstream Water

Hydropower matters to electricity supply and to economic growth, and the city does not dispute that. Its argument is that when water itself runs short, reservoir decisions must weigh the needs of the whole basin, not only the energy the dams can produce. Household use, farming and keeping adequate flow in the lower river all have to be counted.

Da Nang's approach depends on coordination between local authorities, the units that manage and operate the dams, and the relevant state agencies. It calls for frequent updates to weather and hydrological forecasts, close tracking of reservoir levels and river flows, and operating plans that shift when conditions on the ground change.

Reservoir management is only one strand. The city also says it will work on plans for more efficient and economical water use, review supply needs area by area with attention to places most exposed to drought and salt, and have relevant units prepare contingency plans covering both daily life and production.

What is missing is any figure. Da Nang has published no reservoir levels, no estimate of the generation the five plants would forgo, and no measure of how much extra water a pause until 11 November would capture. Without those numbers, the size of the trade-off cannot be judged from outside.

Will holding water now protect the 2027 dry season?

The bottom line

Da Nang's request is a bet on the calendar. By asking Song Tranh 2, A Vuong, Song Bung 2, Song Bung 4 and Dak Mi 4 to stand down or run at minimum discharge until 11 November 2026, the city is choosing stored water over current electricity. It does so on the strength of El Niño forecasts that rate the basin's scarcity risk high to very high, and of reservoir levels it calls very low. The request is still a proposal to the National Power System Operation and Electricity Market Company Limited, not a settled order. The city has also published no figures to size what is being traded. The 2027 dry season will show whether the caution was warranted.

What to watch

• Watch whether the five plants stay idle or at minimum discharge through 11 November 2026, the end date in Da Nang's request.
• Watch for a response from the National Power System Operation and Electricity Market Company Limited; no date for one has been set.
• Watch when the 2027 rainy season actually begins, since a late start is one of the factors the city's warnings say would deepen the shortage; no date has been forecast.