447 households affected by subsidence in the 'mineral capital' Nghe An received support of more than 10 billion VND

There are 2 households that have not agreed on the support amount.

On March 14, Mr. Tran Duc Loi - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district said that up to now, 447 households affected by unusual subsidence in Chau Hong commune have received support money with a total amount of 10,428 billion VND. "The 2 households that have not agreed have had their damages calculated, but they demanded too high a support amount, so the business and the government delegation did not agree," said Mr. Loi.

A house in Chau Hong has a crack. Photo: TH

On August 25, 2022, Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung issued an official dispatch directing departments, branches and localities to handle issues related to subsidence, house cracks, and dry wells in Chau Hong commune, Quy Hop district. In particular, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Construction to direct relevant agencies to urgently complete the inspection and quality assessment of affected works and hand over the documents of works that have been inspected and quality assessed to Quy Hop District People's Committee.

The Department of Construction then assigned the Nghe An Construction Inspection Center to inspect and evaluate the quality of the affected works and determine the level of impact of the works according to each level A, B, C, D. However, the Inspection Center could not determine and evaluate the volume of work that needed to be repaired, as well as the repair plan and the necessary costs to repair the works for each household. From there, the Department of Construction handed over the entire dossier to the People's Committee of Quy Hop district.

"This is a difficult and complicated problem for the People's Committee of Quy Hop district", said the leader of Quy Hop district, and said that, identifying this as a particularly important political task, in order to ensure stability of political security and social order and safety in Chau Hong commune in particular and Quy Hop district in general, the People's Committee of Quy Hop district has asked for direction from the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee and proposed a plan to overcome and repair in the direction: "Where there is damage or subsidence, repair and fix it there".

The District People's Committee then established a Working Group headed by the Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee to directly direct and support the repair of houses and constructions affected by subsidence and land cracking in Chau Hong commune; and established a Mobilization Committee to propagate and mobilize.

The inspection results showed that a total of 449 households in Chau Hong commune were affected by subsidence. The working group calculated and supported 447 households with a total payment of 10.428 billion VND. All of this money was paid by Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company.

Sinkholes in the field. Photo: TH

Specifically, in the first phase in early May 2022, Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company supported 64 households to repair and restore with an amount of 3.48 billion VND. However, at that time, the company and the people agreed on the level of support without going through the government, so these 64 households have not been inspected, measured, calculated, and determined the level of support. Therefore, the working group is currently reviewing and recalculating the level of support that the 64 households have received.

In the second phase, the district leaders directly directed relevant departments, agencies and branches together with the People's Committee of Chau Hong commune and Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company to visit each household to determine the level of impact, calculate the volume and value to be remedied and pay support money to 383 households, with a total amount of nearly 7 billion VND.

In addition, at the end of September 2022, when the District Working Group was calculating and supporting households, 222 more households continued to submit applications for support. The District People's Committee directed the Chau Hong Commune People's Committee to review and accurately and objectively identify households eligible for support. However, after reviewing, only 67/222 households in the area were affected. The District People's Committee is requesting Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company to consider supporting these 67 households.

According to Mr. Truong Van Hoa - Chairman of Chau Hong Commune People's Committee, among the 447 households that received support money, the most affected household received 300 million VND, the least affected household received 5 million VND. "For the 2 households that did not agree, one household was calculated by the Working Group to have only 14 million VND in damage but demanded nearly 1 billion VND in support. The remaining household was calculated to have 80 million VND in damage but also demanded more than 200 million VND," said Mr. Hoa.

Thus, according to the inspection results, up to now, Chau Hong commune has 516 households affected by subsidence. Meanwhile, the whole commune has only 962 households.

To date, 477 households have received financial support due to the impact of subsidence. Photo: TH

The specific cause has not yet been found.

Chau Hong commune is a valley, surrounded by mountain ranges, under the mountain range is a system of caster caves and underground streams. The caster cave system is full of water, the underground stream system flows underground, at the foot of the mountain, stretching about 25km from Chau Hong commune to Quy Hop town. Chau Hong is considered the "mineral capital" with many mines licensed for exploitation over the past decades. The northeast of the commune is licensed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the People's Committee of Nghe An province to exploit 6 white stone mines and 2 tin ore mines. Of which, only Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company exploits tin ore with underground water pumping.

Chau Hong Commune is a valley, surrounded by mountains. Photo: TH

The situation of subsidence, cracking of land and houses of people in Chau Hong commune began to appear from the end of 2020, at this time only occurring in the rice fields. According to the leaders of Quy Hop district, after receiving reports from the People's Committee of Chau Hong commune, the People's Committee of the district established regular teams to grasp the situation, directly inspect and direct. At the same time, the People's Committee of the district promptly reported and asked for instructions from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Science and Technology.

From February 2021 to October 2021, the District People's Committee reported and asked for direction from the Provincial People's Committee and relevant departments and branches three times. The departments sent specialists to coordinate with the District People's Committee and the Commune People's Committee to inspect, determine the cause and propose remedial measures. However, after each inspection, the departments and branches still could not determine the cause of subsidence and cracking.

In early 2022, this phenomenon spread to the houses of households, agencies and schools of Chau Hong commune. The land subsidence points, with an area of ​​about 25 - 30m2 on production land, depth of 1.5 - 2.5m; the land cracks extended, through the yards, gardens, houses of many households; cracks appeared at Hong Tien Secondary School, the Commune Cultural Post Office and the headquarters of the People's Council and People's Committee of Chau Hong commune. According to the petition of the households, this situation has affected 449 households in 6 hamlets of Chau Hong commune.

Since the incident, the People's Committee of Quy Hop district has directly visited the scene 25 times to inspect and direct; there are 13 documents and reports requesting direction from the Provincial People's Committee, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Construction; there are 19 documents directing departments, branches, sectors and the People's Committee of Chau Hong commune.

Despite many exploratory drills, the exact cause of the subsidence has not yet been found. Photo: TH

On April 29, 2022, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment issued an official dispatch, assigning the People's Committee of Quy Hop district to issue a notice requesting organizations and individuals to immediately stop pumping and exploiting groundwater in Cong village, Na Hieng village, Pong village and neighboring areas and take strict measures to handle cases of non-compliance. On May 11, 2022, the People's Committee of the district issued an official dispatch, requesting Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company to stop pumping and exploiting groundwater for mining. However, due to fear that the machinery and equipment in the mining tunnel would be damaged due to flooding, the enterprise did not comply.

On May 27, 2022, the Provincial People's Committee issued an official dispatch to the People's Committee of Quy Hop district to direct organizations and individuals to immediately suspend groundwater exploitation and use activities of related projects in Chau Hong commune, Quy Hop district. Since then, Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company has stopped pumping groundwater for mineral exploitation. The situation of subsidence, cracking and drying of water wells no longer occurs.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee then also directly went to the scene to inspect and direct departments, branches and localities to handle many related issues. According to the leaders of Quy Hop district, following the direction in the conclusion of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee after this inspection, since then, the locality has regularly inspected the implementation of the decision to temporarily suspend groundwater pumping and exploitation activities of mineral exploitation enterprises in Chau Hong commune; strictly handling violations.

Image of underground water pumping at the tin mine of Tan Hoang Khang Joint Stock Company before being suspended. Photo: TH

“The district has also closely followed the locality, directing the People's Committee of Chau Hong commune to ensure safety and stabilize the lives of the people; the People's Committee of Chau Hong commune has relocated 10 households, with 44 people, to temporarily reside with other families, and at the same time supported the households to stabilize their lives, each person 40,000 VND/day for 6 months. The total amount of support is 317 million VND, from socialized sources", said the leader of Quy Hop district.

In addition, Quy Hop district has signed a contract worth nearly 1 billion VND with the North Central Geological Federation to survey, assess the current situation in detail, and determine the cause of subsidence in Chau Hong commune. The North Central Geological Federation has completed and reported the survey results, determining the cause of subsidence in Chau Hong commune. However, the results still did not identify the specific cause, but only gave a general assessment that it was due to the depletion of groundwater resources.

Then, in the directive dispatch dated August 25, 2022, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to preside over further clarifying, more fully and accurately, the causes of subsidence in Chau Hong commune. Regarding this issue, the leader of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that the unit is still presiding over and advising on implementation. There are still no results./.