A water protection corridor would be established around hydropower and irrigation reservoirs, and artificial lakes in urban and residential areas to prevent illegal encroachment, according to a decree drafted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Accordingly, hydropower and irrigation reservoirs of national importance would have water protection corridors of a height at least equal to the estimated maximum height that flood water can reach.
As for other reservoirs in urban areas and residential quarters, the corridors would be built in an area of at least five meters away from the edge of the reservoirs.
In natural dams, lagoons and water sources which have biodiversity values or are located in cultural or relic sites, the protection corridors must be built more than 20 meters away from the edges of such dams, lagoons and water sources.
Costs for building water protection corridors would be paid by owners of hydropower or irrigation reservoirs, while funds for construction of protection corridors for other kinds of reservoirs would be supported by the State.
Mineral mining, housing construction, and other encroachment within water protection corridors would be banned.
Currently, the country has about 7,000 dam reservoirs of which more than 6,500 are hydropower reservoirs with a capacity of 11 billion cubic meters of water.-
