Preventing illegal construction and encroachment on the Vach Bac canal.
For over a month, the authorities of Do Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district) have had to establish two teams, consisting of police officers and commune officials, led by two deputy chairmen, to prevent illegal construction along the Vach Bac canal. These two teams take turns on duty day and night, with 4-5 people per shift, guarding the locations where people have already built house foundations and areas at risk of further illegal construction.
On duty all night to prevent
This move comes after many households took advantage of the period when the commune was preparing for the merger to build houses illegally on a massive scale. Along this canal, there are currently up to 200 illegal houses, not including 10 more that are being hastily completed.
The Vach Bac drainage canal, constructed in 1976, is over 20km long, connecting Yen Thanh district, flowing down to Lach Van (Dien Chau district) and then emptying into the sea. This canal functions to drain floodwaters for the northwestern communes of Yen Thanh district and more than 12,000 hectares of agricultural land in Dien Chau and Yen Thanh districts.
Normally, this canal doesn't have a large volume of water. The canal only becomes turbulent during the rainy season when it has to drain a large amount of water flowing down from upstream. To protect the embankment and the canal bed, after its construction, the government and the managing and operating unit, Bac Nghe An Irrigation Company Limited, have jointly committed to preventing people from building houses in the protected area of the canal.
However, because the road running alongside the canal is an inter-communal road, connecting from National Highway 1A and passing through Do Thanh commune, linking to many communes of Yen Thanh district, it has a favorable location for trade, so some people want to turn this strip of land into residential and commercial land.
According to the leaders of Do Thanh commune, the illegal construction began in the 1990s, when some households in the commune spontaneously erected makeshift stalls on the land along the canal to sell soft drinks, repair bicycles, etc. Records kept at the Bac Nghe An Irrigation Company Limited also show that since 1992, the company had sent documents to the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune and the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district protesting the illegal construction by households on the canal's embankment and within the canal itself, and requesting that local authorities urgently intervene and rectify the situation.
However, instead of preventing it, the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune later openly sold some land within the protected corridor and in the canal bed to local residents. From then on, the issue of illegal construction on land protected by the Vach Bac canal in this commune became complicated. The Bac Nghe An Irrigation Company Limited repeatedly appealed to the district and provincial authorities for intervention. The commune, district, and People's Committee of Nghe An province held numerous meetings to address the issue, but sturdy, spacious houses continued to spring up.
In 2020, the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune reported to the district to develop a plan to forcibly demolish 13 houses that had been illegally built on the banks of the Vach Bac canal. Before organizing the demolition, the commune tried to persuade these households to voluntarily dismantle the structures. However, the demolition was unsuccessful. A leader of Do Thanh commune said that the main purpose of demolishing these illegal houses was to deter and prevent others from planning to build illegally; however, due to difficulties in deploying enforcement forces, the plan had to be halted.
Build a house quickly.
According to Mr. Luyen Xuan Hue, Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune, the biggest difficulty in preventing people from building illegal houses on the banks and in the bed of the Vach Bac canal is that the commune had previously "mistakenly" sold land to quite a few people. This strip of land, located next to the canal and along the inter-commune road, has a very convenient location for business, making it very difficult to prevent illegal construction.
“They build at night, very quickly. They just need to take advantage of a few days off to finish the foundation, and then if they're a little careless, they finish the house,” Mr. Hue said, adding that so far, along this canal, about 200 households have built houses illegally, many of them solid structures, making it extremely difficult to deal with. These houses all have their fronts facing the inter-communal road, with the back facing the Vach Bac canal.
Mr. Hue also stated that recently, taking advantage of the commune merger and the end of the commune's leadership term, illegal construction has resumed. Upon inspection, the commune authorities noted that more than 10 houses have had their foundations completed on the slopes and within the Vach Bac canal, and are ready to be completed in a short time.
"This land was previously allocated by the canal management unit to a local resident for planting acacia trees to protect the canal. However, many houses have unexpectedly sprung up on this area, and many others have already had their foundations built," said a resident who has built a house in the area. He added that the land was purchased from someone in the commune for 500 million VND.
“Land in the commune is very expensive. When I got married and moved out, my family couldn't afford to buy land, so I had to buy this plot and build a house. Even though I know it's illegal, I don't know where else to live,” this person said. To prevent people from building houses illegally, for more than a month, the Do Thanh commune government has established two teams consisting of police officers and commune officials, led by two deputy chairmen of the commune.
In 2017, the People's Committee of Nghe An province assigned the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district and Do Thanh commune to develop a resettlement area plan to relocate hundreds of illegal houses along this drainage canal. However, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune stated that the relocation remains on paper due to a lack of funding and difficulties in determining the legal status of these households and whether they are eligible for compensation and relocation.
Recently, during the land clearance process for the North-South expressway, eight households who had built houses illegally on the canal's right-of-way were still compensated at a rate of 12.5 million VND/m².2and receive compensation for assets on the land. This sets a very difficult precedent for the government in future land clearance projects because people will compare the compensation prices.
Preventing the problem was difficult, but relocating hundreds of these households was even more challenging, given the limited land available in the commune, which has over 18,000 inhabitants. Built hastily, many of the houses are now dilapidated.
"The commune is responsible for allowing people to renovate, repair, or expand their houses. But not allowing people to repair them is also very dangerous because it's unsafe. Every road is difficult," Mr. Hue sighed.
