Design and Construction of Dams and Reservoirs: What Are the Requirements?

According to Decree 114, the design and construction of dams and reservoirs must meet the following requirements:

1. For the design and construction of dams and reservoirs:

- The investment in building dams and reservoirs must comply with the requirements stipulated in Article 17 of the Law on Irrigation;- The overall layout and structural design of the dam must facilitate the management of dam safety, emergency response in case of incidents, and maintenance, upgrading, and repair when the structure is damaged;- The operating procedures for the sluice gates and maintenance procedures for each component must be established, approved along with the design documents, and handed over to the dam and reservoir manager upon commissioning of the structure;- For the electrically operated spillway sluice gates, there must be at least two power sources, one of which must be a backup generator;- Install monitoring equipment for the dam and reservoir following the current national technical standards and regulations, and other relevant legal provisions;- For dams and reservoirs with sluice gates for flood regulation, a monitoring system for operation, safety warning devices for the dam and downstream areas, and specialized hydro-meteorological observation equipment must be installed in the reservoir basin;- Large dams and reservoirs with uncontrolled spillways must be equipped with safety warning devices for the dam and downstream areas, and specialized hydro-meteorological observation equipment in the reservoir basin;- Medium and small dams and reservoirs with uncontrolled spillways are encouraged to apply the above regulation;- Build a database for dams and reservoirs.

For particularly important and large dams and reservoirs, in addition to the above regulations, the investor must also comply with the following:

- Water intake structures and deep-set drainage structures below the dam crest must have sufficient height and width for inspection and repair;- Construct management roads for emergency response to the dam, and construct an operation house for management, exploitation, and disaster preparedness at the structure.

For medium and small dams and reservoirs, the State encourages compliance with the regulations as applied to particularly important and large dams and reservoirs.

Decree 114/2018/ND-CP is effective from September 4, 2018.

- Thanh Lam -

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