Taking advantage of the commune merger period to encroach on Cua Ong irrigation lake to build a pig farm
Recently, Cua Ong irrigation reservoir has been threatened by dozens of large-scale pig farms discharging waste directly into the lake. Many households have even taken advantage of the government transition period to fill and encroach on the reservoir area with the aim of building pig farms.
Encroachment on irrigation lakes
Recently, many people in Bich Hao commune have continuously complained about the dozens of large-scale pig farms without licenses springing up en masse on the shore of Cua Ong irrigation lake. Most pig farms do not have waste treatment areas, but discharge waste directly into the lake, and even dead pigs suspected of having African swine fever are dumped directly into the lake, causing environmental impacts.
In particular, some households took advantage of the period of merging communes and transferring government to mobilize many machines and dig up land day and night to encroach on the lake bed with the purpose of building pig farms.
In the last days of June, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Kien (residing in Bich Hao commune) mobilized many machines to level the Cua Ong irrigation reservoir. At peak times, in this area, there were up to 8 trucks and 4 excavators continuously cutting up hill soil to dump into the dam reservoir to encroach on the reservoir area. The leveling work took place day and night.
By the evening of June 30, Mr. Kien's actions were discovered by the Cua Ong irrigation dam management unit, Thanh Chuong Irrigation Company Ltd. At this time, Mr. Kien had managed to fill and encroach on the irrigation dam bed with an area of more than 875m2.2According to the leader of Thanh Chuong Irrigation Company, Mr. Kien's purpose was to encroach on the dam to build a pig farm, but he was discovered before he could build the barn.
Immediately after discovering the incident, on July 1, the authorities drew up a record of administrative violations and required Mr. Kien to dismantle the illegal construction, remove all the soil that had been dumped into the reservoir, and restore the original state. However, more than half a month has passed, and according to the reporter's records, Mr. Kien not only did not fix the problem, but also planted acacia trees on the edges of the newly encroached land to protect the land. Meanwhile, Mr. Kien's administrative violations have not been punished.
This is not the first time that Cua Ong dam has been encroached upon to build an illegal pig farm. Cua Ong dam has an area of over 150 hectares, is the largest irrigation dam in the old Thanh Chuong district, most of the dam area is located in the old Thanh Mai commune.
On December 1, 2024, Thanh Mai commune was merged with Thanh Giang commune, forming Mai Giang commune. In the last days before the merger, many illegal pig farms also sprung up in the area around the dam, most of them built on perennial crop land and forest land. Among them, one household also brazenly used machinery to dump soil and encroach on the dam reservoir to build a pig farm. This household was later discovered and promptly stopped by the commune police force. 7 months later, when Mai Giang commune prepared to merge with Thanh Xuan, Thanh Lam and Thanh Tung communes to implement the 2-level government (with the new commune being Bich Hao), the situation recurred.
Pig farm discharges waste into the lake
According to the reporter's records, the area around the Cua Ong dam currently has about 20 large-scale pig farms, some households raising up to 700 pigs. Most of them have waste pipes directly discharging into the lake. Present here, the reporter also recorded a dead pig carcass decomposing, floating on the lake. It is worth mentioning that currently, Bich Hao commune has had a resurgence of African swine fever, making many people even more worried about pig farms.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh - Director of Thanh Chuong Irrigation Company Limited said that the construction of pig farms in Cua Ong Lake appeared since 2018. Initially, there were only 3 farms, but now there have been dozens of large-scale pig farms. "These pig farms are not licensed to operate, discharge waste into the lake, and do not comply with environmental regulations. In the coming time, I hope that authorities at all levels will join in to rectify the illegal farming situation, causing serious pollution to Cua Ong Lake," said Mr. Thanh.
Regarding the newly discovered encroachment of the reservoir, Mr. Thanh said that this is a serious encroachment case. “The volume of violations is very large, deliberately taking advantage of the transition period, the reorganization of the local government at 2 levels to commit violations,” Mr. Thanh said and requested the competent authorities to promptly take strict measures to handle it.
Previously, from the end of 2024, when a series of pig farms were built en masse, the People's Committee of the old Thanh Chuong district also issued many documents, directing the communes of Thanh Mai (old) and Thanh Tung (old) to inspect and prepare records to handle violations at the Cua Ong irrigation dam. However, after that, no handling actions were taken by the commune-level authorities.
Mr. Nguyen Khanh Thanh - Chairman of Bich Hao Commune People's Committee said that regarding Mr. Nguyen Dinh Kien's encroachment on the irrigation reservoir, after receiving the notice, the Commune People's Committee assigned relevant departments to consolidate the records to handle administrative violations. Regarding dozens of other large livestock farms, Bich Hao Commune People's Committee is making statistics and reviewing. "We will have to check each farm to see if the construction, livestock farming, and discharge of waste into the environment have completed all procedures. After the review results are available, the authorities will compile a record, and if there are any violations, they will be handled according to the law," Mr. Thanh said.
The mysterious corrugated iron sheds
Also in the old Thanh Mai commune (now Bich Hao commune), in just a few days at the end of June, when the two-level government was about to come into operation, people rushed to build a series of corrugated iron shacks on agricultural land. According to the reporter's records, there were more than 60 shacks made entirely of corrugated iron and steel, with each shack having an area of only about 20m2.2Most of these corrugated iron sheds were hastily built on agricultural land along the frontage of the road running through the center of the old Thanh Mai commune.
“These corrugated iron sheds are not used for anything, they are just built and left there. Although they are built on agricultural land, because they are not permanent structures, but only temporary sheds, there is no basis for handling them. According to our investigation, these households are intending to convert these agricultural plots into residential land,” said Mr. Nguyen Khanh Thanh - Chairman of Bich Hao Commune People's Committee.
