People erect lamp posts to light up the highway.

(Baonghean.vn) - Recently, many people traveling on National Highway 48, especially at night passing through some highland areas of Quy Hop, will surely be surprised to see many sections of road illuminated all night. What is special is that those lampposts were not built with State funds but with contributions from local people.

Street light poles built by people in Dong Ban hamlet, Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district along National Highway 48.

This meaningful work first started from 20 households living along National Highway 48 in Dong Ban hamlet, Dong Hop commune. Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, deputy hamlet leader of Dong Ban hamlet, Dong Hop commune, was one of the first people to propose this initiative. He said that at first, the implementation was very difficult, only a few households agreed, and some families even commented: "We don't dare to light up inside our house, let alone light up on the street."

But with the determination and enthusiasm of a few households who actively persuaded and mobilized each family, 12 households agreed. Then, 8 more households asked to join and contributed 400,000 VND/household to make lamp posts and buy light bulbs to install along National Highway 48, passing through the residential area.

Street light poles in Dong Ban hamlet, Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district illuminate National Highway 48 at night, creating favorable conditions for traffic participants.

Up to now, the street lighting system of this residential group has been in operation for 9 months and has proven to be very effective when at the black spot of traffic accidents no accidents have occurred, security and order are ensured and most importantly the lighting cost is very low.

Seeing the effectiveness of street lighting in Dong Ban hamlet while the operating costs were not expensive, this movement spread to the entire Dong Hop commune. Mr. Vu Ngoc Lam, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Dong Hop commune, said: “According to the commune's statistics, along the more than 6 km length of National Highway 48 passing through the commune along the hamlets of Khe Men, Dong Ban, Dong Can, Dong Song, Hop Thuan, Dong Thuan, Hop Lien, Hop Long, people have contributed funds for lighting poles for the entire hamlet. In hamlets not located along National Highway 48, people have also actively built street lighting poles. The whole commune has 9/15 hamlets with street lights.”

Street lights illuminate National Highway 48 in Hop Long hamlet, Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district.

The model of Dong Hop commune has also been widely implemented by the people of Tam Hop commune in hamlets with a high spirit of volunteerism and self-awareness. Typically, the people of Bac Son hamlet, Tam Hop commune have built a lighting system on 4 roads.

Among them, there is a residential area living along Highway 48 with 86 households contributing 980 thousand VND/household to make 86 street lights. Unlike the hamlets along Highway 48 in Dong Hop commune, in Bac Son people contributed money to make lamp posts on both sides of the road. In addition, on the inner-hamlet roads, there are a total of 74 households contributing an average of 520 thousand VND/household to make electric poles for lighting on 3 routes.

Currently, the hamlet is mobilizing people to contribute to make electric poles for lighting the remaining 3 routes with an expected length of 2km. Mr. Ho Vinh Thuy, hamlet chief of Bac Son hamlet, Tam Hop commune shared: "Since the street lighting system was installed all night, on average each household only pays 15,000 VND for electricity per month, but the results are very obvious. Traffic safety is guaranteed, security and order are much better, there are no more chicken thefts or dog fishing like before." In Tam Hop, many hamlets and people have voluntarily contributed money to make electric poles for lighting along National Highways 48 and 48C.

Unlike Dong Hop commune, people of Tam Hop and Quy Hop communes contributed money to build street lights on both sides of National Highway 48.

The street lights have a low investment value, low operating costs but bring great efficiency to local people and traffic participants. This is a good model that needs to be replicated to improve the quality of life and change the appearance of rural areas.

Nhat Le