Dan Lai village 'thirsty' for electricity

(Baonghean.vn) - Hundreds of Dan Lai households in Con Cuong district (Nghe An) are still waiting day and night for the national grid, but for many different reasons, these remote villages still have to use self-generated electricity.

Mr. Vi Van Tam is very upset because the electrical equipment he buys keeps breaking down because the power source is sometimes weak, sometimes strong.

Khe Bu village, Chau Khe commune (Con Cuong - Nghe An) is nearly 30km from the district center. The Dan Lai people, a community that fled from the tyrants more than 200 years ago from Thanh Chuong district, chose to settle here. Life is difficult, the majority of households are poor, so they receive special attention from the government and benefactors. At the beginning of the new school year and on holidays, charity groups come to give gifts and carry out other charitable activities.

Operating a mini generator is also labor-intensive and expensive. Just a piece of trash caught in the turbine can cause a power outage.

However, according to Mr. Vi Van Tam, one of the few Thai people in Khe Bu village, the people still hope for and need the national grid electricity the most. He said his family has lived in this village for nearly 30 years. The villagers mainly have only oil lamps and self-generated electricity from small turbines. The power supply is unstable, sometimes weak, sometimes strong, causing damage to many electrical devices.

“The amplifier and receiver are all burned out. I don’t know how many light bulbs we replace each year.” Mr. Tam said, looking frustrated.

According to the people in Khe Bu village, every year they spend several million Dong on repairing and replacing mini generators.

Almost all 126 households in the village have to use this unstable power source, only a few households and government agencies receive electricity from the generator of the mobile network tower.

Mini generators placed under the stream have long been a familiar sight in Khe Bu village. The power source is unstable, and the mini generators quickly break down due to water erosion and are washed away by floods. "Every time there is a heavy rain, the next day there will be a house that has to replace its water turbine," said Le Van Hop, a resident of Khe Bu village. Almost all 126 households in the village have to use this unstable power source, only a few households and government agencies receive electricity from the generators of mobile network towers.

“Each time I change the ball bearings, it costs 500,000 to 600,000 VND, and if the coil burns out, it costs 1.5 million VND. The turbine blades have to be replaced almost every few months. The cost of electricity and water is several million VND per year,” said a resident of Khe Bu village. The majority of the villagers still rely on natural gathering, and their income is as unstable as the electricity and water supply, so the majority of households in the village cannot afford to buy mini generators.

In these households, they often do not have enough money to buy oil for lighting, and have to eat dinner before the sun sets. At night, they "entertain" themselves by going to houses with electricity and water to watch TV or go to bed until the next morning.

Therefore, Khe Bu stream always has a group of people fixing electricity and water. The system of machines and wires is installed in a makeshift manner, strung on treetops, fences, or supported by weak bamboo poles, posing a potential risk of electric shock accidents.

Wire systems installed on fences pose a risk of electric shock.

Knowing that it is more dangerous and expensive than using the national grid, the people still "have to accept it". They also do not know when the village will have electricity. Even when asked, local policy makers do not know when this Dan Lai village will have the national grid. Mr. Vi Dinh Khai, Secretary of the Chau Khe Commune Party Committee, shared that currently the electricity sector has only measured and planned the technical aspects but does not have a clear roadmap for providing electricity to villages without the grid.

In addition to Khe Bu village, Chau Khe commune also has Khe Na village and Khe Nong residential area, which have not yet been established and lack the national electricity grid. In Co Phat and Khe Bung villages in Mon Son commune, the most remote Dan Lai communities, they also have to use electricity from small generators placed under the stream. Electric poles and lines have been installed in Co Phat village for more than a year now, but people can only wait for the electricity to be turned on.

Ha Phuong