- A recently published study based on fieldwork in northwest Vietnam shows how even small hydropower projects can have a large impact on communities.
- With an increase in small hydropower projects, residents of Bien La commune report loss of farmlands, fishing, local jobs and culture, as well as insufficient compensation.
- While these impacts force the villagers to migrate to other districts in search of jobs, the community women try to revive their culture of traditional textiles and indigo dyeing to preserve their way of life.
In June 2019, an early morning flash flood swept through the Bien La commune in northwestern Vietnam, ravaging crops and farmlands belonging to 60 families. The cause: the Su Pan 1 small hydropower dam, about 12 km (7 miles) upstream of the commune, where officials opened the water discharge gates without prior notice.
Most of Bien La’s residents are from ethnic minority groups like Tay, Hmong, Dao and Kinh. According to a recent study, the development of multiple small hydropower projects (defined by Vietnam as projects under 30 megawatts) has had both economic and cultural impacts on these communities, leading to loss of farmland and jobs, as well as a decline in traditional practices and communal harmony.
“Although these small hydropower projects have benefited a few community people, many have lost their farmlands, a traditional way of life forcing them to out-migrate to other provinces from their ancestral villages in search of work,” says Nga Dao, associate professor at Canada’s York University and lead author of the study. Dao conducted field research in the area from 2009-24, and, beginning in 2019, collaborated with local women who served as co-researchers by documenting their lives and communities via photography.
“Overarching impacts”
Small hydropower plants have proliferated over the past two decades. According to the study, four small hydropower plants have been built in Bien La since 2006, and an additional three in neighboring communes upstream. This has affected two streams — the Suoi Hien and the Suoi Mai — that meet in Bien La, resulting in poor water quality, scarcity of irrigation water and declining fish catches.
“Before the hydropower construction, my husband, along with other villagers, caught tens of kilograms of fish every night,” said a Tay woman in Du Mi village interviewed for the study. “It provided us extra income and nutrition for our family, but now it’s only memories.”
Residents of the commune also reported steep drops in the production of rice, maize and soybean production, which sustained the local economy. From 200 bags (nearly 15,435 pounds) of rice per harvest, Dao says that rice production for some local people has dwindled to 70 bags (around 5402 pounds) per harvest as a result of water scarcity and loss of land due to the hydropower projects.
Uneven benefits
According to the study, small and medium hydropower plants have provided approximately $185.2 million (4,800 billion dong) annually in revenue, and by 2030, the province aims for the total installed capacity of small and medium hydropower plants to reach around 1800 MW.
Though the hydropower projects in Bien La are technically “small,” Dao notes they still require several hectares of land for construction and can have substantial negative impacts — especially when communities are not consulted and provided with alternative livelihood opportunities.
According to a 2020 NGO-led survey referenced in the study, 91.8% of households interviewed reported losing income due to hydropower development. Cultivation loss, loss of income related to tourism and selling traditional products, lost income from fishing and lost income from forestry were widely reported.
A few communities in the upstream communes have started raising trout and sturgeon (Acipenseridae) to adapt to the changes and to generate income. However, the start-up costs are high, leading some to take out loans, and, while roughly 100 households have started fish farming, Dao says, only two dozen families have so far succeeded in making a living out of it.
Dao says residents have also repeatedly raised concerns about the compensation offered for land lost due to hydropower projects. Some families received as little as $0.39-0.77 (10,000-20,000 dong) per square meter (10.7 square feet) of land, she says.
Mongabay reached out to Viet Long Industrial Joint Stock Company, operator of the Su Pan 1 dam, via email and the Vietnam-China Power Investment Company Ltd., operator of Seo Chung Ho dam, via Telegram for comments, but the companies had not responded by the time of publication.
These income losses have forced community people to out-migrate to other districts and provinces in search of job opportunities, while younger people have been particularly affected.
Women also reported specific, gendered impacts. While women previously engaged themselves in gathering leaves of the Indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria) for traditional dyeing and stalks of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum) to create linen yarn for textiles, they now engage in wage work outside the commune. “We have almost no farming land left, so I work as a waitress in a restaurant in [Sa Pa] town,” a 24-year-old woman said in the study. “I am exhausted at the end of each day and can’t spend time with my toddler, who spends her entire time with my parents.”
In addition, an NGO source in Bien La, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from hydropower companies, told Mongabay that some of the hydropower projects in Bien La are located close to national parks and other forest areas, and that people displaced by the dams have started moving into these sensitive ecosystems.
“The company is not accountable in case of any risk, and local people who take care of these natural resources are not involved and consulted in [small hydropower] projects,” the anonymous source told Mongabay. “Even though hydropower plants have strict operating procedures, the 2019 flood occurred without prior notice, and perhaps because the plant operations team did not fully anticipate such a large flood, given that Su Pan 1 was a small hydropower plant.”
Building resilience
Despite the challenges, Dao says community members are working to restore cultural harmony through reviving traditional textile and indigo dyeing.
Bien La is a popular tourist destination and, while hydropower projects have impacted the local tourist industry, Dao says, the community women try to engage themselves in cooking traditional foods and performing cultural activities for tourists to make sure they don’t lose touch with their roots.
In 2023, ethnic Tay women also participated in a household competition for traditional cooking, weaving and making handicraft products where they interacted about the issues they mutually faced. An elderly woman who joined the interaction said in the study, “Since the arrival of many [small hydropower projects] in our commune, this is the first time we have had that much fun together. These activities brighten up our lives.”
Banner image: Villagers in Bien La participate in a contest for making traditional items. Image by Pham Hoài Thanh.
Citation:
Dao, N. (2025). Small hydropower, slow violence, and gendered struggles in Northwest Vietnam. Sage Journals. doi:10.1177/23996544251318589
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