Life in poverty where one used to 'spend money like water'

Receiving large compensation from the construction of a hydroelectric plant, many Co Tu households in Quang Nam suddenly became "billionaires", but only four years later, the number of poor households in the "billionaire village" doubled.

In mid-April, the road leading to village 2, Ta Po commune (Nam Giang, Quang Nam) was deserted. Only the elderly and children remained in the village, most of the people had to work in the fields to make a living under the scorching sun. The current life of this village of more than 60 households is completely opposite to a few years ago. “Everyone has run out of money, run out for a long time, they have to go to work. But now the land is small, they have to go far, so life is very difficult,” said Ms. Cho Rum Ot (55 years old).

Right at the beginning of village 2 is the 2-storey wooden house of the Secretary of Ta Po commune. Photo: Tien Hung.

In 2011, households in village 2 received compensation from the construction of Song Bung 4 hydropower plant. The entire village received nearly 100 billion VND in compensation to relocate from the hydropower reservoir to a new residence, with each household receiving an average of 1.7 billion, the largest household receiving more than 3 billion VND.After receiving the money, people rushed to build houses and buy expensive furniture.

Ms. Ot's family received more than 2 billion and spent nearly half of it to build a two-story wooden house, of which the cost of paying workers was up to 500 million VND. Similarly, manyWooden villas have sprung up all over this remote mountainous area, nearly 30 km from the commune center. Among them, the commune secretary Po Loong Lenh built a stately house right at the entrance of the village.

Village 2 residents said that a few years ago, money was no problem for them. Seeing one household build a grand house, the other followed suit and built even bigger ones. For the few households that did not receive compensation, the villagers pooled their money together, giving them a few hundred million to build a house.

“People here are very open-minded. I have money but I can’t keep it, I just spend it lavishly, now I feel sorry. If only a hydroelectric plant were built in a few days, and the villagers would move to another place, and if they received the money, no one would dare to spend it like that anymore, I have experience,” Briu Dan (29 years old) said innocently.

Spacious houses are closed because people have to go to work in the fields. Photo: Tien Hung.

Looking far away at the majestic wooden houses,Dan said that after receiving the money, most of the villagers no longer wanted to go to the fields, they just stayed home and drank beer. Some households hired Kinh people from the lowlands to work on their fields. In those days, the trucks carrying beer up here had already sold half the village. Every house in the village had beer bottles lying around.

“The most expensive thing is building a house. After receiving the money, some brokers appear and bring a group of workers from somewhere to convince people to build a house. The group of workers is only about 5 people, it takes a few months to build because the wood is available, the homeowner takes care of the meals, but the labor cost is 500 million VND, very expensive. People have too much money, no matter what price they offer, they will not accept it,” Dan said.

In the “glorious days” of the villagers of Village 2, every household had several expensive motorbikes. The villagers also recounted the story of some young men who went to Da Nang and went to a motorbike shop to ask “how much are a dozen motorbikes”, because they had hundreds of millions in their hands.yesrIn the case of buying a motorbike and literally "washing it", that is, buying dozens of cases of beer and pouring it on the motorbike.Some households even buy cars for travel.

Spending lavishly, the villagers soon ran out of money and had to rush to the fields to farm for a living. However, in their new homes, each household only received 600 square meters of land to build a house and 1.5 hectares of forest land for reproduction, so life was difficult. Motorbikes had no money to buy gas, so people had toMany sellers at low prices.

“The old place had everything, a big garden to grow vegetables and catch fish in the lake, life was self-sufficient. Now we only rely on a small field, and have to travel very far, we have to buy everything and everything is expensive, so it's very difficult,” said Bhnuoc Bon (39 years old).

Briu Dan (left), at that time many young people in the village did not know how to buy plane tickets, otherwise they bought them just to fly. Photo: Tien Hung.

According to Ta Po commune statistics, in 2011, village 2 had 11 poor households. Just 4 years after receiving billions from compensation, the number of poor households in the village doubled (21 households), accounting for more than 1/3 of the total households in the village. "This number will certainly increase in the coming years," a commune leader commented.

Mr. Tongol Voi, Chief of Office of Nam Giang District People's Committee, said that for a long time, people have only lived self-sufficiently, almost not using money. "Up until now, villagers have not worked for hire, they have to make their own living, so they do not know the value of money, leading to wasteful spending. We know but cannot intervene, we can only propagate," Mr. Voi said.

According to VNE