Lesson 2: Cha Coong

(Baonghean) -Currently, in Cha Coong village, the old Huu Duong commune, there are still over 40 households trying to stay in their old place of residence, despite poverty, danger, and uncertainty due to flooding, rain, and natural disasters. Not to mention that these households do not have a household registration or household registration, their children cannot go to school, and there are no conditions for health care, education, or community cultural activities. On the other hand, the fact that people voluntarily stay in the reservoir area is also putting the government in a difficult position. These households clear forests for farming, putting the upstream forest in danger.

We left Xop Lam village, rowed about 2km more to reach Cha Coong village. Boatman Luong Van Thang pointed to the thatched houses on the hillside, a few rafts floating in the distance on the lake surface, and said: In previous years, Cha Coong was the most crowded and bustling village along the Nam Non river. For the common good, most of the Thai people here happily implemented the relocation policy. But there are still over 40 households in the village who are still trying to stay and have not relocated. They are implementing a long-term "entrenchment" strategy by electing their own village chief and dividing the population into 2 areas, digging a nearly 1km long road and building a water pipeline from the bottom of the lake to the residential area. There were some households who had come to the resettlement area and then returned, because the old village was flooded, they cut bamboo, built rafts to live temporarily on the lake bed... In the cold lake wind, Mr. Thang's words about Cha Coong, about himself, were intermittent: "Sometimes people cling to the past to forget the present. But in the end, it seems like everyone tries to endure the present hardship to demand more rights in the future...".

People's houses on rafts and lakeside.

On the waterway to Cha Coong, accompanying us was Mr. Luong Cong Doan, 70 years old this year, the remaining village elder of the village. His thin shirt could not block the cold wind of the lake, his lips were purple, Mr. Doan laboriously paddled the oars to part the water back to the village. The boatman Luong Van Thang brought the motorboat closer to pull Mr. Doan's boat back. With his hands free to row, Mr. Doan tidied up the nets in the boat, packed up his flintlock gun. He resentfully said: "Today, I went to set the nets, it was too cold, I didn't catch anything; I visited the traps but they were empty." Cha Coong village is now divided into two groups of residents, one group lives on rafts on the lake and the other on the mountainside. The house of the "spiritual leader of the village" Luong Van Doan is right next to the road up the mountain. Shaking off the unhappy look on his face because he was empty-handed after a day of work, old man Doan invited us to visit his house. Inquiring about the current situation of the village, Mr. Luong Van Doan said: Previously, the village had 178 households, now there are 47 households that have not relocated, plus about 10 households that relocated according to their wishes and now return, there are approximately 60 families. According to Mr. Doan's explanation, there are many reasons why people here have not relocated yet, but in short, it is because they have not received satisfactory compensation, and then the people here relocated later and found life in the resettlement area unstable so they do not want to leave anymore.

Regarding the village, Mr. Doan said: "The land area is large, the villagers can freely clear the fields for farming. Last year, the district banned clearing forests for farming, so the villagers were worried for a long time, causing the harvest to be slow. Learning from experience, this year the villagers started farming early, so the harvest is also good. Each family bought a machine to put in the stream, a small machine costs 600-700 thousand, a large machine costs 3 million, enough for lighting and watching TV. The villagers' lives are now basically stable: they no longer belong to any village, no village chief, no secretary, no commune, no village, they live independently, self-sufficient... the children's education has to be sent to neighboring communes, the preferential policies and support for students in especially difficult areas are no longer available, so tuition fees must be paid normally. Regarding medical treatment, because they do not belong to any commune, they are not covered by health insurance." Asked about the implementation of the relocation policy, Mr. Doan said: "People want to be resettled in place and merged into Huu Khuong commune, Tuong Duong district. It is said that the communes in the lake must be relocated, so why don't the communes of Mai Son, Nhuan Mai, Huu Khuong (communes in higher areas - PV) also on the lake have to be relocated?". Mr. Doan bargained: "We haven't relocated because the current compensation is not enough, for example, a 10 meter stump is compensated for 10 trees but the stump is not compensated...".

Tran Hai-Thanh Chung-Cong Kien