Uncertain lives along the Nam Non River
Sharing the same fate of losing their homes in the 2018 flood, in Luong Minh commune (Tuong Duong), some households were arranged for resettlement, while others waited wearily, having to risk living in houses with large cracks. Meanwhile, the resettlement area cost more than 12 billion VND but only has 5 households living there, and recently many abnormalities have been revealed.
Floundering in the abandoned house
For nearly 6 years, Mr. Lay Van Thoa (59 years old, La village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong) has been waiting for the day to settle down. His wife is sick and no longer able to work, his children are married far away, and his family is not well off enough to support their parents. All the burdens of the family fall on Mr. Thoa's shoulders. His main income depends on farming, sometimes he is hungry, sometimes he is full. So saving up to buy land and build a house for himself is almost impossible for Mr. Thoa.
“I have found a plot of land. But they asked for 45 million VND, I have no money to pay. Not to mention, even though I have the land, I don’t know where to get the money to build a house. So I still have to risk living temporarily in this abandoned house,” Mr. Thoa said, pointing to the cracks all over the house. He has just patched those cracks with mortar, but that doesn’t seem safe enough. On rainy days, the house is soaked because of the leaking. Every flood season, the Nam Non River rises to the foundation of the house, and Mr. Thoa and his wife don’t dare to sleep.
Mr. Lay Van Thoa was one of 31 households that lost their homes in the flood in August 2018. That day, after heavy rains, the hydroelectric plant was forced to release water, blowing away Mr. Thoa’s house and many of his belongings. “Luckily, my wife and I escaped in time, so we saved our lives,” Mr. Thoa said.
Having lost his home, Mr. Thoa took his sick wife and the few remaining assets to temporarily stay in the hut of his nephew who was working far away. However, 3 years later, this nephew returned to his hometown to build a new house, and Mr. Thoa and his wife had to pack up and find another place to live. That is the house he is living in now.
According to Mr. Vi Dinh Phuc - Chairman of the People's Committee of Luong Minh commune, the house where Mr. Thoa and his wife are temporarily living was seriously damaged in the flood in 2018, and is at risk of sliding down the Nam Non river at any time.
This house has been abandoned since 2018 and is subject to relocation. Legally, people should not be allowed to move in, but Mr. Thoa and his wife were in a desperate situation, with nowhere else to go, so they still had to take the risk.
Mr. Vi Dinh Phuc - Chairman of People's Committee of Luong Minh Commune
During the 2018 flood, 31 households in Luong Minh commune lost their homes. Not long after, each household received 70 million VND in support. The Tuong Duong district government then set up an emergency resettlement project, but this resettlement area only had 17 plots of land, reserved for most of the households in Minh Phuong village. The remaining 12 households in La village and a few in Coi village still had to live temporarily in tents built along the road or stay with relatives.
We are in the same situation, but they were resettled, we were not. We also requested many times that if there was no resettlement project, they could support us with a little cash so that we could find land to build a house ourselves, but we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited.
Mr. Lay Van Thoa (59 years old, La village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong)
Not far from Mr. Thoa’s temporary house, Mrs. Vi Thi Lan (59 years old) is in the same situation. After losing her house to the flood in 2018, Mrs. Lan and her husband had to build a tent made of canvas on the roadside to survive. In 2019, Mrs. Lan’s father-in-law passed away, and 2 years later, her husband also passed away. Both funerals had to be held in this temporary tent.
“That temporary hut only had enough space to place the coffin, there was no place to worship or burn incense. Anyone who came to the funeral was very sad,” said Chairman of the People’s Committee of Luong Minh commune.
A few months ago, after waiting for so long, Mrs. Lan received some financial support from her two daughters who married far away, and then she borrowed another 100 million VND from the bank to buy a small piece of land and build a house. At this time, Mrs. Lan finally stabilized her life after nearly 6 years of living in a tent.
Abnormalities in the emergency resettlement project
After 31 households lost their homes, Tuong Duong district approved a resettlement project to urgently accommodate these households. Accordingly, on September 19, 2018, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district signed a decision to assign the site clearance package to Nam Nghe Construction, Trade and Tourism Joint Stock Company. However, this resettlement project only has 17 plots of land for 17 households. The project has a total cost of more than 7.3 billion VND, of which more than 2 billion VND is for site clearance fees, the rest is used for infrastructure construction. The project has a total area of more than 14,000 m2, of which the leveled area is 3,590 m2.
According to the reporter's investigation, this project was constructed without the required documents and procedures. There was even no geological survey. Therefore, the project later encountered many problems.
The resettlement project site is Khe Cong. This is the place that more than 10 years ago was chosen to relocate Xop Mat village and the commune administrative center. But after spending more than 2 billion VND to fill the land, many cracks and landslides appeared, so it had to be abandoned for more than 10 years. The area had a history of landslides, but was still chosen by the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district to build a resettlement area, causing many people to be skeptical. Initially, the project was scheduled to take 5 months to complete, but after more than 5 years it has not been completed.
In October 2020, when the project was about 95% complete, the government began to mobilize people to build houses. However, in line with people's concerns, when only one household had finished building a house, this resettlement area continued to collapse. Specifically, on the top of the slope, a slide of nearly 100m appeared, the widest crack was about 0.5m, about 0.5 to 1m deep; the base of the embankment made of rubble protecting the bottom of the slope and the drainage ditch was moved from its original position, causing the drainage ditch at the foot of the slope to break and damage. Fearing that it would affect people's lives, the government asked people to temporarily not build houses, waiting for the results of monitoring the stability.
But it was not until more than 2 years later that this area was surveyed geologically. The results showed that “it is safe for people to build houses and stabilize their lives”. However, due to having to wait too long, most households have found land elsewhere to build houses. According to the reporter's records, there are currently only 5 households living here.
Meanwhile, from the initial project with a total budget of 7.3 billion VND, then had to arrange an additional 3 billion VND to build a reinforced embankment to prevent landslides, along with a budget of more than 2 billion VND for leveling more than 10 years ago, up to now the government has poured a total of more than 12 billion VND into this place. Spending such a large amount of money, but only 5 households live here, causing many people to question the effectiveness of the project. Meanwhile, in La village, many households in the same situation lost their homes in 2018, currently still have to live precariously in abandoned houses./.
