Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant

Water bandit. River raider.

That is what people once called a river, and it was no ordinary river. The Đà River is one of the fiercest rivers in northern Vietnam. Every rainy season, the river burst its banks and drowned fields and villages. Every dry season, the water dropped low, and boats could barely get through. The river was both frightening and hard to live with.

Then one day, people decided to tame it.

Work on the Hòa Bình Hydropower Plant began on November 6, 1979. The country had come out of war not long before, and it was badly short of electricity. The governments of the Soviet Union and Vietnam signed an agreement to work together. Soviet engineers and workers joined tens of thousands of Vietnamese people. Together they dug into mountains, poured concrete and raised the dam. Fifteen years later, on December 20, 1994, the plant was inaugurated.

The numbers behind it are hard to believe. The plant has eight generating units. Together they have an installed capacity of 1,920 megawatts. On average, the plant produces 8.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. The reservoir holds 9.45 billion cubic meters of water in all. The lake spreads across 208 square kilometers. The reservoir plays a vital part in holding back floods for the Red River Delta. Since the plant was built, the great floods that once threatened Hanoi and the northern delta have not struck with the same devastation as before.

The plant does more than one job. It makes electricity, holds back floods and supplies water in the dry season. It also irrigates fields and improves travel on the river. That is why it is called a multipurpose project.

The walk through the tunnel to the turbine hall is one of the most memorable parts of the visitor route. All the turbines, generators and control rooms sit inside the mountain, beyond a long system of tunnels. In the turbine hall, visitors hear the low hum of the turbines turning and look out through the glass. They are standing inside a machine that is making electricity at that very moment. The light from a bulb switched on tonight could come from here.

After the turbine hall, visitors climb more than 100 steps up Ông Tượng Hill. At the top stands a monument to President Hồ Chí Minh. The statue is 18 meters tall. It was inaugurated on January 20, 1997. From the hilltop, the whole project lies below. There is the dam across the river and the reservoir upstream. There is the Đà River flowing on downstream, and the mountains all around.

The story of the monument goes back to a trip the president made. In 1962, as he passed the Đà River, he spoke of a hope. He wanted to turn the water bandit into a water blessing, a fierce river made into a resource for everyday life. Seventeen years later, work on the plant began. Thirty-five years later, the monument rose at the very spot that looks out over the whole project his words had inspired.

Below the monument is a small structure with a large meaning. It is a concrete block that protects the Letter of the Century. The letter is sealed inside the concrete and is due to be opened in the year 2100. The engineers and workers who built the plant had poured their sweat and blood into it. They wrote the letter for the people who will live a hundred years later. No one knows what they wrote inside. The person who will open the letter has not yet been born. But the act itself says everything: the plant is a work of engineering, and also a message of faith in the future.

The grounds of the plant also hold a memorial to those who died during construction. They include both Vietnamese workers and Soviet experts. A great project always comes with sacrifices that no one wants to dwell on, yet no one may forget.

The story of the Đà River does not end there. On the right bank of the dam stands the expanded Hòa Bình Hydropower Plant. It was inaugurated on December 19, 2025, and adds 480 megawatts of capacity. Right beside the project from the 1980s, a new plant has just been built. Vietnamese builders put it up, using the engineering of today.

A great project always has a part that can be seen and a part that cannot. The visible part is the concrete dam, the reservoir, the turbines and the technical figures. The hidden part is the story of the people who raised it. It holds decisions made while the country was still going through very hard times. It holds sacrifices, and dreams of a life with electric light under every roof.

Tonight, when the lights go out before bed, think of the Đà River. It was once called a water bandit, and now it helps bring light to so many homes.