The wish at the foot of Bu Hoc mountain

(Baonghean) -Less than 50 km from the district center, however, for a long time, people in the three communes of Chau Phong, Chau Hoan, Dien Lam (Quy Chau district) have lived completely isolated from the outside world, the national power grid has not been able to reach here. No electricity has brought many difficulties in people's daily life, the need for information and entertainment has been almost forgotten. People here compare their hometown with the not-so-proud name: "Dark oasis...".

From Tan Lac town, following the only road through Pu Huong forest, we entered 3 remote communes in the most difficult areas of Quy Chau district. They are Chau Phong, Chau Hoan and Dien Lam. All 3 communes have over 10,000 people, 100% of whom are Thai ethnic people, living on a total natural area of ​​over 36,000 hectares, but agricultural land accounts for less than 2%. Life is mainly self-sufficient, hunger and poverty always cling to them persistently like a karma.

The only light bulb serving the daily life of a family of 7 people
by Mr. Loc Van Thuy



The solar panel system cannot meet the working needs of the Commune People's Committee and the Health Station.

Visiting the family of Loc Van Thuy, a Thai ethnic (Chau Hoan commune), when he was struggling to replace a new fluorescent light bulb bought at the district market. "My family and 3 other families pooled money to install a generator motor from Nam Cam stream for 6 months now. The capacity is weak, so each family can only install one light bulb, considering it as having light without having to use oil lamps, so we have to replace this bulb to save electricity". Mr. Thuy's family has 7 people, 5 young children of eating and studying age all depend on that only source of light. But the Nam Cam stream is not always gentle for generator motors. Every time the flood season comes, the stream water rises, these motors are disabled, people have to disassemble and store them, wait for the water to go down, then bring them back to the stream to install them again, and not everyone has the money to install generator motors like Mr. Thuy's family. Right next to Mr. Thuy's house is Ms. Vi Thi Nga's family, in a stilt house next to Nam Cam stream, the oil lamp handmade from Ong Tho milk cartons, wick wrapped in coarse cloth is an important item of the family. Ms. Nga confided: "The family's life depends entirely on the light of this oil lamp, I also want to buy a generator motor but I don't have the money yet".

The situation like Ms. Nga's family is not uncommon in Chau Hoan. The whole commune has 2,263 people/457 households, the poverty rate is nearly 65%. "People are only farming while the fields are small, only 62 hectares of land for production, so life is very difficult and hard. I want to buy a generator with light for my children to study and live, but the cheapest one costs nearly 500 thousand, the expensive one costs up to 1.2 million VND, where can I get the money to buy it. I just hope there will be national grid electricity to ease the suffering of people" - Mr. Luong Dinh Diem - Vice Chairman of Chau Hoan Commune People's Council worried.

The lack of national grid electricity also brings a series of difficulties to agencies located in the commune. At the headquarters of the People's Committee - People's Council of the commune, the Commune Health Station... although the State has invested in a solar panel system. However, due to low capacity, it only meets a small part of the demand. At the Commune Health Station, electricity from solar panels is only enough to run the refrigerator to preserve vaccines, and the needs for lighting the station and emergency care at night have to be self-sufficient. Doctor Lu Ngoc Chuyen, Head of the Chau Hoan Commune Health Station, said: "The lack of electricity makes the operation of the Health Station very difficult. Many times when there are emergency cases at night, the staff have to use flashlights to get light to work."

At Chau Hoan commune headquarters, although the newly built office building is quite spacious and fully equipped with working equipment such as neon lights and ceiling fans, because the electricity from solar panels cannot meet the demand, these items are just hung up and left "inactive".

The people of Chau Hoan, Chau Phong, and Dien Lam only hope that the State will soon bring the national grid to the commune. When there is electricity, business will be more convenient, people can also watch TV, watch the news, grasp information to change the way they think, the way they do things, and improve their lives.

After a day of wandering through the Thai villages at the foot of the Bu Hoc mountain range, I could see the difficulties and struggles in the lives of the people here. One of the main reasons for the backwardness in life and economic poverty is the lack of national electricity grid. I returned to Tan Lac, carrying with me the concerns of my fellow countrymen about the "Dark Oasis" that I don't know when it will "light up".

Nguyen Thanh Duy