Need to clarify hydropower's responsibility in the case of a series of houses having to be relocated due to landslides

Flood season uncertainty

In early September, Mr. Nguyen Van Hong (38 years old, Luu Kien commune, Tuong Duong district) said that until now he is still living in fear.house waiting to collapsenext to Ban Ang hydroelectric reservoir. Mr. Hong is one of 6 households here whose house has cracked and is at risk of sliding into the hydroelectric reservoir for more than 2 years now. "We have not received any information, we do not know whether the hydroelectric plant has compensated or not. The flood season is very close, we will probably have to live with death for another year," Mr. Hong shook his head in disappointment.

Meanwhile, regarding the issue, the People's Committee of Nghe An province and Tuong Duong district have issued many directive documents, all stating that the relocation of these 6 households is urgent and needs to be carried out before the 2020 flood season.

One of a series of cracks running through Mr. Hong's house. Photo: TH

Mr. Phung Hung - Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tuong Duong district said that the locality has received 600 million VND from Nam Mo - Nam Non Hydropower Joint Stock Company (the investor of Ban Ang Hydropower Plant). However, this amount is not enough to relocate 6 households.

“The district will ask people to find land to build houses themselves, then pay them without having to build a resettlement area and then move them there. The total compensation and support cost for 6 households is more than 4.162 billion VND. Of which, the cost of direct compensation and support is more than 3.9 billion VND, including the compensation value for houses and auxiliary works of 2.087 billion VND; the compensation value for architectural works of more than 1.746 billion VND; the compensation value for crops of 16 million VND; support for moving houses within the commune of 18 million VND; support for renting houses of 36 million VND and the support price for leveling the ground of 180 million VND,” Mr. Hung said. However, with only 600 million VND, Tuong Duong district has to continue waiting for the source.

However, this 600 million VND is not compensation for the people, but the hydropower plant claims that this is only money "support in the spirit of mutual love". In the document sent to the local government about this support, Ban Ang Hydropower still did not have a single line accepting responsibility for causing the cracking situation. Most of the content of the document, the hydropower plant used to complain about difficulties in operation. The hydropower plant said that recently, the revenue from selling electricity is not enough to cover the costs of maintaining operations and production, especially in recent months, the revenue from electricity generation is not enough to pay off bank loans...

People believe that these cracks were caused by hydroelectric power plants. Photo: TH

Meanwhile, according to the people and the commune authorities, this landslide was caused by the hydropower plant. Ms. Lo Thi Oanh, one of the 6 households that need to be relocated, said that her family has lived here since 1988 and has suffered many floods, sometimes the water reached the roof, but when the water receded, everything was back to normal, life still went on. "Since the Ban Ang hydropower plant was built, my house has been cracked everywhere, so I don't dare to live there, I have to rent a house elsewhere in the hope of receiving support for relocation... The authorities of this district also confirmed that the households cannot continue to live here and said that the Ban Ang hydropower plant compensated for relocation to a new place," Ms. Oanh said.

Need to assign specific responsibilities

More than a year ago, Tuong Duong district inspected the landslide situation and decided to urgently relocate these 6 households. The district then sent a document requesting the hydropower plant to provide funding for the relocation, but the investor refused. Tuong Duong district had to "call for help" from the province. On January 10, 2020, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued a document requesting Nam Mo - Nam Non Hydropower Joint Stock Company to coordinate with the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district and related organizations and individuals to agree on a plan and budget to relocate 6 households in Khe Kien village out of the landslide area and the area at high risk of landslides, ensuring the safety of people and property of the people. The implementation results must be reported to the Provincial People's Committee before February 15, 2020. However, the investor still "denied" responsibility in the document responding to the Provincial People's Committee.

According to the investor, "The 6 households that need to be relocated according to the recommendation of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district are all located on the flooded level of Ban Ang hydroelectric reservoir. The reason why the houses of these households have cracks is due to many reasons, especially because these households are all located on the negative slope of National Highway 7, which is greatly affected by floods caused by natural disasters, especially the flood in 2018."

Ban Ang Hydropower Plant said that recently, electricity generation revenue has not been enough to cover expenses. Photo: TH

By May 2020, after Nghe An Newspaper had consecutivelyarticle on landslidesthreatening the lives and property of the people, the Provincial People's Committee established an interdisciplinary inspection team to directly assess the situation. After receiving the report from the inspection team, in mid-July, the Provincial People's Committee continued to issue a document, in which it clearly stated that these 6 households must be urgently relocated before the 2020 storm season. The province requested the investor to work with Tuong Duong district to agree on a specific level of support for each household. After this document from Nghe An province, the hydropower plant agreed to support only 600 million VND out of the total cost of more than 4 billion VND for relocation.

Nam Mo - Nam Non Hydropower Joint Stock Companyis the investor of many hydroelectric plants in Western Nghe An. Not far from Ban Ang Hydroelectric Plant isNam Non Hydropower Plant. Also during the flood discharge at the end of August 2018, this hydropower plant caused the houses of 14 households living along the hydropower area to be washed away and collapsed. However, the hydropower plant remained indifferent to the people's losses. This caused these households to live in the open for a long time until the government started building a resettlement area for them. Until now, the people's lives have not been stable.

Mr. Vi Xuan Hai lost both his son and his house because of the hydropower plant. Photo: TH

A year later, this hydroelectric plant was evenwater discharge killed a local resident. But immediately after that, instead of accepting responsibility, the hydropower plant denied it. After the government intervened, the hydropower plant representative went to the victim's house, wanting to agree on civil compensation of 135 million VND, but then haggled and reduced the amount by half because "both the people and the hydropower plant were wrong". People were very upset because they felt it was not fair.

“A person is precious, no amount of money is enough to bargain about compensation. If you do something wrong, you have to take responsibility.”National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Huu CauAt that time, he was the Director of the Provincial Police Department, said that after directly inspecting the scene and listening to the people's statements, Mr. Cau then directed the police to investigate the case, and the hydropower plant then increased the compensation amount for the victim's family.650 million VND.However, two hydroelectric plant workers were later still imprisoned.prosecutefor involuntary manslaughter.

Nam Mo - Nam Non Hydropower Joint Stock Company is also the investor of Nam Non Hydropower Plant. This hydropower plant has also caused considerable damage to surrounding residents in recent years. Photo: TH

Recalling this similar incident shows that it is time to clarify responsibilities according to the law. We cannot expect support with the "spirit of mutual love" as in the past, so that people still have to live in houses that are threatened with collapse. It is necessary to clearly define that this is compensation, compensation for damage to houses, not support. To do that, we need to quickly hire independent consultants to clearly determine the cause of the landslides and subsidence of these 6 households./.