Concrete road in My Ly

(Baonghean) - Concreting rural roads is difficult in the lowlands, and even more difficult in remote areas like Ky Son. However, with support from the State, some localities in the district have made great efforts to contribute labor and money to concretize village roads to make them spacious and solid.

When talking about building concrete roads in villages, Mr. Mua No Xu - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district mentioned My Ly commune, a remote border area with over 75% of poor households. Although it is not a typical commune of the district in building new rural areas, the people chose to build concrete roads first. According to Mr. Xu, it is a "miracle in the village", which needs to be promptly encouraged and promoted for the people.

Many roads into villages in My Ly commune have been paved with clean, beautiful concrete.

Opening the story of building concrete roads in villages, Mr. Kha Ngoc Minh - Chairman of the People's Committee of My Ly commune, proudly said: When there was a policy to build concrete roads in villages, knowing that the people were still poor, the Party Committee and local government were determined to mobilize the whole people to build roads, build new rural areas, and happily, most of the people agreed and supported. Villages near the commune center with more favorable terrain immediately registered to receive cement to build roads. But the commune chose Xop Tu village, which is far from the "gateway" of the commune as a pilot. From there, experience was drawn and deployed to other villages. The contribution to building roads, in addition to cement supported by the State, was also discussed and agreed upon by the villagers on the contribution of sand and gravel. My Ly commune has the Nam Non river flowing through it, with a lot of sand and gravel, so the people of Xop Tu village agreed that each person would contribute 0.5m3 of sand, gravel, concrete mixers and shovels supported by the district. In just 15 days, 1 km of the main road of the village was completed as if in a dream! "Learning" from Xop Tu village, other villages competed to register to receive cement to work. The district supported the commune to buy 2 concrete mixers, but when having to wait for a long time, some villages shouted to each other to mix concrete by human power... The atmosphere of concreting the village road was really bustling.

Next are Xieng Tam, Hoa Ly, Yen Hoa and Xang Tren villages, each with its own way of doing things. We arrived at Xieng Tam village, the roads within the village have been concreted, motorbikes and pedestrians can easily pass through. Mr. Lo Bu Xa, a villager, confided: "Watching TV, I saw many localities investing and contributing to build roads, I was so happy. Therefore, when the State gave cement to pour concrete to build roads in our village, everyone was excited. The village had a meeting and agreed to assign each person to contribute 0.7m3 of sand and gravel." Mr. Xa's family has 6 people, contributing up to 4.2m3 of sand and gravel. The road from the village to the Nam Non river is narrow and difficult to travel, so people use baskets to carry sand up. When there was enough sand, the village organized to pour concrete along each route. Young people were assigned to mix the concrete, those who knew how to build took care of the technical aspects. Village chief Vi Van Luan said: For narrow, curved roads, the village mobilized families to donate garden land and widen the road, everyone volunteered to donate land. When pouring concrete, everyone enthusiastically participated, like a village road festival. Each person had a job, within just June 2013, the villagers poured more than 1,200 meters of concrete road, the road surface was from 1.5 to 3.5 meters wide (depending on the section), 13 cm thick. Now, the people of Xieng Tam village walk on spacious, clean concrete roads every day, everyone is happy and proud.

In 2013, My Ly commune received 700 tons of cement, organized the pouring of concrete on village roads and some items such as: the yard of the boarding school, primary school, kindergarten, volleyball court, the foundation of the village cultural house... In 2014, the local plan registered with the district to make concrete for 4 km of road in 2 villages: Pieng Pen, Xop Duong and provide additional funds for 5 villages that were implemented in 2013. My Ly commune has 12 villages, with 1,160 households, of which Thai people make 8 villages, Mong people make 3 villages, Kho Mu people make 1 village. According to the Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, the 4 villages of Mong and Kho Mu people living along the Vietnam - Laos border are the most difficult in the work of building new rural areas, in which the criteria for making concrete roads is especially difficult. Because these villages do not have roads, people mainly travel by river to get to the villages, so transporting materials is very difficult and complicated.

Article and photos:Xuan Hoang