The National Assembly delegation supervises the implementation of the Ban Mong Reservoir Project.

At the office of the Ban Mong Reservoir Headquarters Management House in Yen Hop Commune, Quy Hop District, the working delegation of the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment led by Ms. Nguyen Thi Le Thuy - Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment had a supervision and working session with the Provincial People's Committee on the implementation of Resolution No. 135/2020/QH14 dated November 17, 2020 of the National Assembly on changing the purpose of forest use to implement the Ban Mong Reservoir Project.

Receiving and working with the delegation were comrades of the Provincial Party Executive Committee: Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee;Thai Thi An Chung – Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation. Also attending were representatives of leaders of departments, branches and sectors; leaders of the People's Committees of the districts: Quy Hop, Quy Chau and Nghia Dan.

The project is behind schedule.

At the working session, the delegation listened to the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee report on the implementation of Resolution No. 135/2020/QH14 dated November 17, 2020 of the National Assembly on changing the purpose of forest use to implement the Ban Mong Reservoir Project in Nghe An province; Work to stabilize the lives of households that have to be relocated in the project area; Difficulties and shortcomings of the Project...

The Ban Mong Reservoir Project was approved by the 14th National Assembly in principle to change the purpose of forest use to other purposes in Resolution No. 135/2020/QH14 dated November 17, 2020, with a total area allowed to change the purpose of use of 1,131.22 hectares in the two provinces of Nghe An and Thanh Hoa.

In Nghe An province, the total forest area allowed to be converted to other purposes is 544.77 hectares; the total area required to perform the obligation to plant replacement forests is 805.27 hectares, with a total amount of more than 36.2 billion VND. To date, the investor has paid the full amount for planting replacement forests.

Regarding the results of replacement forestation, the area that has been planted and accepted up to now is 173.33 hectares, equivalent to a cost of more than 7.7 billion VND, reaching 22% of the area that needs replacement planting (805.27 hectares).

Regarding the land acquisition work to implement the Ban Mong Reservoir project in the province, up to now, 195 households have been relocated and resettled. After receiving full compensation and support according to the State's regulations, the lives of these 195 households are assessed as stable, with access to residential areas with better infrastructure, electricity, roads, schools, and stations than their old residence. Currently, the People's Committee of Quy Chau district is implementing the construction of 2 concentrated resettlement areas: Area 1 after auxiliary dam 1 and Area 2 at Doc 77.

However, the Project was started in 2007, and up to now, there have been many changes in the relevant laws and regulations of the State and many items have arisen, so the implementation cost has increased and the completion progress has been prolonged. Compensation and support for relocation of people's assets involves many local agencies and units. To carry out compensation for people's assets, it is necessary to conduct many meetings to unify and collect opinions. Therefore, the progress of compensation, resettlement support and site clearance is still slower than expected.

Determining the site of replacement forestation in the locality is very difficult due to the regulations that require planting on land without forests in the planning of protective forests, special-use forests and production forests managed by the Management Board of protective and special-use forests; reforestation on the area of ​​planted special-use forests, unforested protective forests that have completed the liquidation of planted forests according to the provisions of law. However, in the province, the eligible areas are mainly fragmented, with large slopes, divided terrain, far from residential areas, traffic routes... so afforestation is very difficult. The areas that are easy to plant forests have basically been planted, so forest owners do not register for replacement forestation...

Quickly handle any problems that arise

At the working session, members of the monitoring delegation and relevant departments and branches of Nghe An province made recommendations and focused discussions on the content of converting forest land use purposes, implementing replacement forestation and progress of resettlement areas for households affected by the project...

Speaking at the supervision session, on behalf of the provincial leaders, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long received the opinions of the members of the supervision team; at the same time, committed to organizing the implementation of the project's components in the province to ensure compliance with legal regulations and progress as required.

Concluding the supervision session, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Nguyen Thi Le Thuy - Head of the supervision delegation, requested the province to re-propose the capital management mechanism between the Central Government and the province in implementing the project. At the same time, requested the province to review and re-inventory the forest land area to carry out replacement afforestation, complete procedures for arranging resettlement areas for people affected by the project; develop a detailed roadmap and the province's commitment in implementing the project.

The monitoring delegation received recommendations and proposals from Nghe An province and related units to report to the National Assembly to resolve problems, thereby contributing to speeding up the project's progress.

Ban Mong Reservoir, Nghe An Province (Phase 1) has a construction investment scale of 225 million m3, 8 water pumping stations along Hieu River and a 45 MW hydropower plant. The goal of the Project is to supply water to 18,858 hectares along Hieu River. Of which, gravity irrigation is 4,551 hectares, the rest is dynamic irrigation; Water supply for Ca River in the dry season is about 22 m3/s, combined with electricity generation according to irrigation; Water supply for industry, people and livestock; Aquaculture and environmental improvement, combined with partial flood reduction for the downstream of Hieu River. The total investment of the Project is 5,552 billion VND.