Safety of the reservoir headworks are very important, nowadays many measures can be used to make their safety including construction of the overtopping structures. In Vietnam, during recent years many overtopping structures of the reservoirs have been constructed, but there is still lack of studies in this problem. Basing on the practical investigations of the typical reservoirs, this study mentioned the present status assessment of the overtopping structures in Vietnam and pointed out the challenging problems that should be studied in detail.