Flooded people refuse to go to resettlement area because construction takes too long

Memories of the flood

In mid-December, we arrived at Hamlet 9, Xuan Lam Commune (formerly Hung Lam Commune, Hung Nguyen District). This is a hamlet with nearly 200 households, living for a long time on an island in the middle of Lam River. The first impression when crossing the iron bridge over Lam River to enter the hamlet is the concrete roads running through the alleys in the hamlet and many solid high-rise buildings located close together.

“This oasis has changed a lot, it is not like before,” Mr. Le Van Nang (61 years old) boasted. Hamlet 9 is located on a fertile alluvial land, built up by the Lam River after floods. The land is fertile, convenient for agricultural cultivation, but in return, the people here have often had to endure floods for generations. Every time the rainy season comes, water from the upper Lam River flows down, this oasis is quickly submerged.

Oasis Hamlet 9 now has many high-rise buildings, no one wants to be resettled anymore. Photo: Tien Hung

“Every time like that, we had to pack up and run away, staying at a relative’s house inside the dike. Sometimes when we couldn’t run away in time, we climbed onto the roof and waited for the flood to recede. It was like that almost every year,” Mr. Nang recalled. The historic flood for the people of Hamlet 9 happened in 1968. At that time, many houses were completely submerged in the flood, with only the roofs remaining.

Faced with that situation, in 2011, the Provincial People's Committee approved an investment project to expand the scale of the project to build infrastructure for resettlement areas for households in natural disaster and landslide areas in Hung Lam commune (Hung Nguyen district). Accordingly, this project will have 100 residential plots (each plot is 315 m2).²) located inside the Lam River dike to arrange new accommodation for 100 households in the flooded and landslide areas outside the dike; most of which are for residents of hamlet 9. The resettlement area is located right next to the road along the Ta Lam dike, with a convenient traffic location. The infrastructure of the resettlement area includes concrete roads, drainage ditches, and electricity; the investment cost is more than 24.2 billion VND from the central budget and the district and commune budgets for emergency evacuation from the disaster area. The project is invested by the Nghe An Rural Development Department, with a 24-month implementation schedule.

After the project was announced, the People’s Committee of the commune informed the people in 4 hamlets outside the dike. After that, 100 households registered to go to the resettlement area in the hope of escaping the flood.

The resettlement area was handed over to the locality more than a year ago but no one has moved in yet. Photo: Tien Hung

Urgent evacuation but it will take 10 years to complete

Despite being an urgent project, people have been waiting for it year after year. It was not until the end of 2021 that the resettlement project was completed and handed over to the locality. However, since then, the resettlement area has remained abandoned, with no residents living there. In some areas, people have even used the land to grow vegetables.

“We registered and waited. But the wait was too long. Every year when we met with voters, people complained, but local leaders kept promising, but the project was still not completed, so we had to take care of ourselves,” said Du Van Linh, one of the households who registered to go to the resettlement area. According to Linh, in the past, people in the area outside the Lam River dike were often flooded because their houses were low, so life was very miserable. In 2018, Linh rebuilt a new, spacious house, raising the ground by 80cm to cope with the floods.

The resettlement area is used to grow vegetables. Photo: Tien Hung

Similarly, many other households in Hamlet 9 are also racing to build high-rise buildings to escape the flood. High concrete roads have also been invested in, helping people travel more conveniently. "After waiting for resettlement for too long, my house has been rebuilt high and spacious, with a garden of 1,000m2², while arriving at the resettlement area, the old land must be returned and the new place of residence is only 300m away.² "Of course we cannot go," said Mr. Du Van Thuy, another resident in hamlet 9.

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Nguyen Van Phan - Chairman of Xuan Lam Commune People's Committee said that the project was urgent but it was not until 2020 that the investor started to fill the land and level the ground. Because this resettlement area took too long to build, people could not wait, so most of the people who registered to relocate rebuilt their houses and raised the ground to adapt to the flood. "We have not surveyed each household, but through understanding the situation, now there are only about 10 households that still need to go to the resettlement area," Mr. Phan said.

In addition, according to Mr. Phan, although the area was handed over to the locality more than a year ago, some items of the resettlement area are still not completed. These items include drainage ditches and electric poles that are too far apart.

The resettlement area's drainage system flows directly into people's fields. Fearing that it would affect production, people used bricks to block it, making it impossible for this area to drain water outside. Photo: Tien Hung

According to the reporter, this resettlement area has also been built with internal drainage ditches. But these ditches flow into people's fields. Believing that when put into use, water from these ditches flows into the rice fields, affecting production, people have used bricks to block all the exits. Therefore, if the resettlement area goes into operation, there will be no drainage.

The investor's representative, Mr. Le Van Luong - Head of Nghe An Rural Development Department, said that due to the limited capital allocation, this resettlement project had to be prolonged. "We have asked the locality to hold a meeting with the people to survey their wishes. If the people no longer have the need, the competent authority will have a solution. It could be auctioning the resettlement area," Mr. Luong said.

However, according to the reporter's investigation, according to current regulations, resettlement areas for emergency evacuation from disaster areas cannot be converted into residential land for auction. In Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu district, there are 2 similar resettlement areas but people have not moved in and have had to leave them abandoned for many years, while the local government does not know how to handle it because they cannot sell them at auction.