HANOI, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A hydropower dam which discharged a large amount of water without any advance notice and caused flooding in Vietnam's central Ha Tinh province in October has been fined 115.5 million Vietnamese dong (some 5,200 U.S. dollars).
The flood, also partly blamed on torrential rains on October 15, drowned 5,000 houses and killed nine people.
Inspectors said Ho Ho Hydropower had violated safety rules when releasing between 500 and 1,800 cubic meters of water a second, despite heavy rain. Local people were not informed of the discharge and did not anticipate the deadly flow of water, reported local VNExpress online newspaper on Friday.
It is not the first time a hydropower plant had been blamed for devastating flash floods in Vietnam, especially in the central region.
In 2009, A Vuong hydropower dam in the central Quang Nam province released 150 million cubic meters of water during Typhoon Ketsana, worsening flooding that killed at least 163 people and caused over 786 million U.S. dollars worth of damage.
In 2013, water discharged from nine hydropower dams was blamed for aggravating flooding triggered by a tropical depression. The central region recorded 41 deaths, said VNExpress.
