Need to stabilize life for people resettled in hydropower projects

(Baonghean.vn) – Resettlement work for hydropower projects has had good results but there are still problems, people's lives face many difficulties, and the poverty rate is high.

That is the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee at the working session with the inter-ministerial delegation: Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade, Planning & Investment, Finance, Government Office on the work of stabilizing life and production for resettled people of Ban Ve, Hua Na, Khe Bo hydropower projects on the afternoon of May 27.

Nghe An province has 4 irrigation and hydropower projects that have been decided to be invested in or approved for investment by the Prime Minister with resettlement.

Currently, 3 projects have completed construction investment and put into operation: Ban Ve Hydropower Plant, Hua Na Hydropower Plant, Khe Bo Hydropower Plant with a total number of resettled households of 4,969 households with 22,099 people having completed compensation, support and resettlement work.

Ban Mong reservoir project is under construction but has not yet resettled people.

Overview of the working session. Photo: Thu Huyen

Currently, resettlement areas have infrastructure such as transportation, irrigation, electricity, water, and community houses that meet standards, better serving people's lives than the old places; there are guaranteed houses, no more temporary houses, and houses of households built by investors that meet the standards of the Ministry of Construction. Compensation and support payments have been timely made in accordance with regulations, and so far 3,138 billion VND has been disbursed out of the total planned 3,411 billion VND.

People in resettlement areas are all allocated residential and production land with a total area of ​​5,062 hectares. Currently, we are striving to complete the land allocation and grant of land use right certificates.

Deputy Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Du said that the poverty rate is still high, and solutions are needed to improve the lives of people in resettlement areas. Photo: Thu Huyen

Resettled people are supported with plant and animal breeds to develop production and trained in production techniques. Based on the allocated land and production support, people have carried out agricultural and forestry production and have income from production activities. Training and coaching on the application of new science and technology for people to change their way of doing business has also been carried out since the early years. Up to now, there have been good production and business models...

At the meeting, district leaders said that land allocation is still slow, the quality of agricultural land is limited, some resettlement areas have not yet allocated enough agricultural land and rice fields. Many infrastructure works serving the community are damaged and need to be repaired, such as cultural houses, bridges, and domestic water.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Huynh Thanh Dien spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thu Huyen

For Ban Ve Hydropower Plant, in Thanh Chuong, there are still 75 households of Cha Coong 2, Thanh Son commune that have not been allocated enough land for production. Some areas of steep, bad land are not favorable for production, the area for wet rice production is small, and there is still encroachment on production land among resettled households.

Hua Na Hydropower Project still has 311 households that have not been allocated forestry land, 746 households that have not been allocated rice land. For production land, most of the resettlement areas have not been granted certificates. The granting of certificates of land use rights, house ownership rights and other assets attached to residential land is still slow and not completed (of which: Ban Ve still has 385 households, Hua Na still has 396 households, Khe Bo 179 households have not been granted).

Hua Na Hydroelectric Plant. Photo courtesy

The organization of production for the people is limited, the potential of the allocated production land has not been exploited, investment support for production for the people is still low, not synchronous in the condition that the production land is still new; the technical level of the people is low, and there is a lack of investment capital, leading to many difficulties in people's lives; the poverty rate is still very high: Ban Ve has 69% poor households, Hua Na has 42% poor households and Khe Bo hydropower plant has 42% poor households.

Currently, Ban Ve Hydropower Plant has 207 households with 626 people returning to live and work in the Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir area.

Dinh Tien resettlement village, Tam Dinh commune (Tuong Duong) - Khe Bo hydropower project. Photo: Document

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Huynh Thanh Dien acknowledged that hydropower projects in Nghe An have brought about socio-economic efficiency in the area. Thanks to the good coordination between investors and localities, they have been operated effectively and contributed to the local budget.

However, the resettlement work still has shortcomings. The working group is requested to consider and agree on the investment policy to establish a project to stabilize the lives and production of people after the resettlement of Ban Ve, Hua Na, Khe Bo hydropower plants according to Decision 64/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister to soon put the project into investment to help people stabilize their lives.

It is recommended that the project investors: Vietnam Electricity Group, Hua Na Hydropower Company, Vietnam Electricity Development Corporation continue to closely coordinate with local authorities at all levels to complete the allocation of remaining land to households and continue to support people according to the approved plan.

After listening to the opinions of the meeting participants, comrade Nguyen Van Du - Deputy Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that Nghe An province and investors have paid much attention to supporting resettlement sites, however, the poverty rate is still too high compared to the general level of the province, investors only care about essential works but lack public welfare works. Attention should be paid to households returning to their old residences, households with complaints and petitions.

The investor and the province should review public works and welfare; speed up the process of granting red books to people. Regarding production, it is necessary to integrate project programs to stabilize people's lives after resettlement.

Regarding the province's proposals and recommendations, the working delegation accepted the opinions of the delegates and requested the Provincial People's Committee to complete the report to submit to the Prime Minister in the coming time.

Thu Huyen