Urgent issues in the flood-affected area of Luong Minh.
With its predominantly hilly terrain and scattered, isolated villages clustered along rivers and streams, Luong Minh commune was one of the highland areas of the province that suffered heavy damage from the 2025 storms and floods. However, to this day, the reconstruction of this land remains fraught with difficulties.
Longing for a bridge
“For the past year, we’ve had to take a ferry across the Nam Non River to get to the center of Luong Minh commune. Each trip costs 30,000 dong per person, not including motorbike fees. There’s a trail from Minh Tien village, but it’s only passable on sunny days. On bad days or when it rains, it’s impossible to travel because it’s too slippery…” – Mr. Seo Van Ba, a resident of Minh Tien village, Luong Minh commune, told us about the difficulties many households in Luong Minh commune face in transportation after the Xop Mat suspension bridge was swept away by floods in 2025.
Luong Minh is one of the particularly disadvantaged mountainous communes in the former Tuong Duong district. Due to the complex terrain of Luong Minh commune, with many hills and mountains, and scattered, isolated villages concentrated along rivers and streams, and being located downstream of the Ban Ve hydroelectric dam, it suffers severe consequences every time there is heavy rain and flooding. For example, in 2025, after typhoons No. 3 and No. 5 and their aftermath, Luong Minh commune experienced unprecedented floods, suffering extremely serious damage.
Statistics from Luong Minh commune in October 2025 showed that, following the storms and floods, 93 houses in the area were swept away or submerged, resulting in serious collapse, flooding, or landslides requiring urgent relocation. In addition, many essential infrastructure facilities such as roads and suspension bridges suffered serious damage.
Most unfortunately, the suspension bridge over the Nam Non River in Xop Mat village was swept away by the flood, causing immense difficulties for the 490 households and 2,294 people in four villages in the inland area (including Dua, Minh Tien, Minh Thanh, and Cham Puong villages), as well as the students of Luong Minh Ethnic Minority Boarding Primary School.
Nguyen Van La, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of Luong Minh Commune, is also a parent with a child studying at Luong Minh Semi-Boarding Ethnic Minority Primary School. According to Mr. La, the school is located in Minh Tien village, previously about 5 km from Xop Mat bridge along a mountainous road. The school has nearly 500 students, many of whom are children from outlying villages and children of commune officials. Due to its low-lying location near the Mat stream, the school is frequently flooded during the rainy season, causing constant anxiety for teachers and parents.
After the 2025 flood swept away the Xop Mat suspension bridge, getting to school became even more difficult for students. To get to school, many children from remote villages have to travel by boat across the Nam Non River, posing many risks, especially during the rainy season. Therefore, the people of Luong Minh all hope that the bridge will be built soon.
Sharing his story with us, Mr. Nguyen Van La said: “Once, upon hearing news of an impending storm, around 1 AM I had to find a way to get to the school to pick up my child. It was very difficult, and I was constantly anxious, so I even considered transferring my child to another school. But then I thought, as an official, how would I explain that to the people? So I gave up the idea. Honestly, every time I hear a storm forecast, I feel uneasy. Like the people in the area, I really hope that Xop Mat will soon receive investment for construction…”
We long for the school, we long for the resettlement area.
Along Route 543B, which runs through the central area of Luong Minh commune, many houses still stand on the embankment, teetering on the edge of the Nam Non River, suffering from subsidence and cracks due to the 2025 storms and floods. The residents are all anxious and worried because the 2026 rainy season is fast approaching.
The family of Ms. Vi Thi Tram, residing in La village, is one such case. Ms. Tram's family owns a small plot of land and a house right on the banks of the Nam Non River. The house was completed in June 2025, but due to flooding, it has subsided and the foundation has cracked.
Ms. Tram said: “We live on land inherited from our grandparents. The land is right next to the river, and we knew there was a risk of landslides, but we had no other choice, so we took a risk and borrowed 200 million VND from the bank to build a house. But after building it, we only lived there for a few days before typhoon number 3 hit, damaging the house. Now we just hope the authorities will give us resettlement land to build a small shack to live in, because we've been constantly worried every night for so long...”
According to Mr. Vu Thanh Ton, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Luong Minh commune, since October 2025, the People's Committee of the commune has submitted a report to provincial agencies on the damage caused by floods and heavy rains, requesting consideration for investment in the construction of a resettlement area so that households like Ms. Vi Thi Tram's family can have stable housing.
At this stage, 30 families whose homes were swept away or severely damaged by landslides have proactively found land and registered to receive support under the policy for building integrated housing. Therefore, the commune has recently completed the paperwork and provided assistance to 18 households, and will continue to implement the policy for the remaining 12 households. However, there are still 20 households in the commune that urgently need to be relocated and resettled.
To stabilize the lives of these 20 households, the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Luong Minh commune stated that at the meeting to resolve difficulties and obstacles in the construction of resettlement areas organized by the Provincial People's Committee on July 20, 2026, the implementation of the resettlement area in Luong Minh was approved and permitted by the Provincial People's Committee.
On July 23, 2026, in Notice No. 673/TB-UBND, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van De instructed the People's Committee of Luong Minh commune to complete the dossier according to regulations and submit it to the Departments of Finance, Construction, Agriculture and Environment before August 15, 2026. Therefore, along with determining the location of the resettlement area, Luong Minh commune is making efforts to complete the dossier as directed by the Provincial People's Committee.
According to Mr. Vu Thanh Ton, the commune currently has some concerns related to Luong Minh Ethnic Minority Boarding Primary School and the conversion of forest land use for the area planned for the resettlement zone.
Regarding the school, due to its low-lying location near a stream, it is frequently affected by flash floods, landslides, and mudslides. For the past three school years, it has been continuously flooded, damaging the school's facilities and seriously impacting teaching and learning activities. Furthermore, the school grounds are very small (approximately 3,600 square meters).2There is no land available for expansion to upgrade and renovate the school to meet the long-term requirements for organizing boarding services. Therefore, Luong Minh commune has proposed that the competent authorities of the province consider implementing the school construction project in the period of 2026 – 2030.
Regarding the land for school construction, Luong Minh commune has surveyed and planned to build a resettlement area in the same location, with a total area of approximately 3 hectares. This is forest land with natural forest. This means that Luong Minh commune will need considerable time to carry out the procedures for converting the purpose of forest land use according to the law.
According to Vu Thanh Ton, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Luong Minh commune: “Recently, the Department of Agriculture and Environment issued a document requesting localities to review and propose a list of public investment projects for the period 2026-2030. Based on that, Luong Minh commune proposes prioritizing two key projects of the locality: the construction of Xop Mat Bridge and Luong Minh Ethnic Minority Boarding Primary School. In the short term, to ensure that people can receive land and build houses soon, Luong Minh commune hopes that the relevant agencies will create conditions to expedite the process of converting forest land use or consider allowing the locality to simultaneously implement the investment project to build a resettlement area with the procedure of converting forest land use...”.
