Big business blamed for coffee plant-killing drought  Owners of coffee plantations in the Central Highlands region are bemoaning their dying plants, the dry season and dams built by the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation have been blamed for the situation. Coffee plants dying from a lack of water The growers said they often used water from Ia Cham Stream but had recently found the stream is drying out. Families living close to Ia Cham Stream have been able to save part of their coffee plantations, but families further away face severe drought. Grower Le Van Viet said he had struggled to find water in the past two weeks and feared his entire coffee plantation was at threat. Many people blame Tay Nguyen Dairy Company, under Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation, for building a dam upstream which they used to hoard water to feed the cows. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, manager of the dairy farm, admitted that the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation had built dams and a pumping system on the Ia Cham Stream. However, he claimed they had only tested the pumping system three times and had never used it to water the newly-planted 45 hectares of pasture. "It's unfounded to say that we caused the lack of water downstream," he said. However Kien Lo, head of O Gia Village said that each time the company had tested the system, they had sucked the stream dry.   Ia Cham drying out Ia Grai District vice chairman Phan Trung Tuong said they hadn't received any reports about a dam being built from communal authorities. According to Tuong, the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation had installed two pumps on the Ia Cham and Ia Dap streams. These two streams would provide water for over 1,000 hectares of coffee and 14 hectares of rice. Because Ia Cham Stream does not have enough water during the dry season so they had asked Hoang Anh Gia Lai to not use the stream from January to April. The Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation has been blamed for building a dam on Ia Cham Stream "We haven't allowed the enterprise to use the water. We'll ask the communal authorities to provide a report on the case," Tuong said. Unseasonably warm weather has been blamed for the drought in Ia Sao, Ia Grang and Ia Kha Town. Tran Trung Thanh, vice director of Center for Hydro‑Meteorological Forecasting in Central Highlands said last year saw half the usual rainfall of previous years so there would be a more serious situation during the dry season. dtinews.vn