Quickly complete the project of relocating fishermen in Thanh Chuong

(Baonghean) - The project to build resettlement areas to resettle 165 fishing households on Lam River and in extremely disadvantaged areas of Thanh Chuong district in Thanh Thuy and Thanh Lam communes was approved by the Provincial People's Committee in December 2009. However, up to now, many items of the project have been unfinished, causing waste, while some completed items have deteriorated.

The above project, invested by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, was officially approved in December 2009, including: Leveling the ground of 165 residential plots and the central area, building a traffic system, drainage system, concrete bridges, electricity system, kindergarten, community cultural house, and domestic water well system. Settlement point No. 1 is 120 households in Khe Mu area, Thanh Thuy commune (261 ha); settlement point No. 2 is 45 households in Trieu Duong area, Thanh Lam commune (131 ha).

The project implementation period was scheduled to be completed in 2011, but at the end of 2011, the project was adjusted and extended to December 2012. However, due to difficulties in site clearance and investment capital, the Provincial People's Committee extended the project to December 30, 2014. The total investment after adjustment was more than 83 billion VND from the central budget invested in the local budget in the annual plan, the provincial budget supported according to the annual plan; integrated with programs and projects in the area; mobilized other legal capital sources.

Up to now, the Trieu Duong resettlement site, Thanh Lam commune has basically completed the main traffic system and internal roads of the project with a length of 3.2 km; completed the drainage system; leveled the ground for 65 residential plots; completed the construction of a kindergarten and a community cultural house, and the electricity system. The provincial inspection council has accepted the completion for putting into use. As for the items of domestic water wells and electricity for households, they will be implemented when people move in. Mr. Dinh Van Binh, Secretary of the Thanh Lam commune Party Committee, said that currently, in order to hand over the project to the commune People's Committee for use and relocate people to the project area at Trieu Duong site, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Thanh Chuong district People's Committee is directing the communes of Vo Liet, Phong Thinh, Town, and Thanh Lam to deploy the assessment of subjects and criteria: households working in fishing, subjects in extremely difficult areas, and poor and near-poor households, without land, with registered residence in Thanh Lam and Thanh Thuy. There are currently about 70 applications from households, the commune is doing the procedures to consider in August 2015. After the residents move in, the project side will proceed to connect the electricity.

The power grid system has been installed at Trieu Duong resettlement area (Thanh Lam), waiting for residents to move in and connect to electricity.

However, at Khe Mu resettlement site, Thanh Thuy commune, some construction items are in disarray. Up to now, the contractor has completed the construction of the main road from Ho Chi Minh road to the project area, 3.9 km long; internal roads in the project area, 3.354 km long, drainage system across the road; leveling the ground for 120 residential plots; domestic electricity system; concrete bridge at Ong Ba slope. In particular, the kindergarten and community cultural house have just been completed in the "rough" and then left unfinished for a long time, without doors; the floor is full of cow and buffalo dung.

The construction of the kindergarten and community cultural house at Triều Dương point has been completed.

Mr. Nguyen Sy Thanh - Construction security guard (outsider) is worried about the deterioration of the community cultural house at Khe Mu resettlement site (Thanh Thuy).

Many unfinished construction items at Khe Mu resettlement site are now degraded.

Mr. Nguyen Sy Thanh, who was hired to guard the construction site in Khe Mu, said that he has been guarding the construction site for 3 years now with a salary of 1 million VND/month, but the contractor only paid for the first year, and has not received any expenses since then. Because the mountainous area is desolate and there is no gateway, he returns home in the afternoon, and this is also the time when dozens or hundreds of buffaloes come to roost, and the construction units have also "disappeared". Therefore, up to now, after many years of implementation, the 2 resettlement areas are still deserted and desolate. The two cultural houses and kindergartens of Khe Mu site are dirty and degraded. The day we visited, the whole area reeked of filth. The reason for the slow progress and unfinished construction project is that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the site clearance work has not been completed, and there are problems with some households related to the high-voltage power line in Thanh Lam commune and 1 household at pole number 6 of the high-voltage power line in Khe Mu area, Thanh Thuy commune. The site clearance was not completed until September 2014, which affected the construction of the household electricity item, slowing down the project implementation progress. Meanwhile, the prolonged rainy weather also caused difficulties in the project implementation. In addition, the capital source is still lacking compared to the total approved investment of 13,227 million VND (up to now, the budget has been allocated and disbursed more than 70 billion VND), so the contractor lacks capital to implement. The contractor has not really focused on human resources and machinery to implement the project.

Mr. Hoang Dinh Hung, Head of the Project Management Board, shared: “The Department has directly worked with the contractor and has a commitment to complete the contracted volume by December 30, 2014, but up to now, the kindergarten and community cultural house items have not been completed and the contractor has not completed the completion drawings to send to the investor for submission to relevant departments and agencies for inspection before accepting the project items for handover and use.”

On the side of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee, Mr. Le Dinh Thanh, Head of the District Agriculture Department, said that the Trieu Duong resettlement area has been basically completed, the district and commune are focusing on reviewing documents to bring qualified subjects into the project area. As for Khe Mu resettlement area, Thanh Thuy commune is also working with hamlets and villages on criteria for people to apply. However, this project has not been completed, so it is requested that the investor and contractor urgently complete the remaining items, not to prolong it any further.

A meaningful project for fishermen and the poor, but for many reasons, it has been implemented for more than 5 years, and has not yet been handed over for use, and the unfinished work has not yet been completed. Therefore, some construction items are currently abandoned and degraded, causing waste. Therefore, in order to quickly relocate people to the project area, contractors, investors, Thanh Chuong District People's Committee, and related departments and branches need to get involved in completing the infrastructure construction, completing procedures for considering resettlement subjects to the resettlement area, allocating residential land, production land, building houses, and moving households to live there.

Thu Huyen