It's not just a story about a dead buffalo...

(Baonghean) - A middle-aged woman named Da, living in Dao Nguyen hamlet, Nghia Dung commune (Tan Ky), said urgently over the phone that at 7:30 a.m. on July 28, the power line in her hamlet broke 3 poles at the same time, the electric wire hit a herd of buffaloes passing by, killing one of them. She said: "Please come back and help the people. The electricity is so bad that one day people will lose their lives..."

Buffaloes die, people worry...

Although it has been a week since the incident where 3 wooden electric poles in the inter-family group in the Ru hamlet suddenly collapsed, cutting off more than 100 meters of bare wire and then falling on a herd of buffaloes, killing one on the spot, the people in Dao Nguyen hamlet are still seething. They feel sorry for the family of Mr. Bang and Ms. Sau, whose female buffalo died just a month before giving birth. They are angry that the officials of the Tan Ky Electricity Branch who came down to resolve the incident only cared about haggling over the price of the buffaloes and did not care about the old power grid infrastructure of the hamlet, which is threatening the lives and property of the people every day and every hour.

Therefore, hearing that a journalist was coming, at the house of Mrs. Tran Thi Da - the head of Dao Nguyen hamlet on the morning of July 30, all the military and civilian cadres of the hamlet came to "accuse". From the representatives of the Party Committee, the Front, the Farmers' Association, the police, the militia to the women and youth of the hamlet, all were present. Mrs. Da, on behalf of everyone, briefly recounted: At 7:30 a.m. on July 28, two children, Pham Van Hiep and Ha Duc Duy, were driving 12 buffaloes to graze on the islet. When they passed the road of the village's inter-family group, suddenly three electric poles fell down. The herd of buffaloes ran away, and the two children, Hiep and Duy, were lucky to be quick enough to jump out of the way, but the exposed electric wire tangled around the buffalo of Mr. Bang and Ms. Sau, and the electricity electrocuted the buffalo to death.

Electric pole fell, buffalo died on the morning of July 28 in Dao Nguyen hamlet, Nghia Dung commune.

At that moment, everyone in the village asked the commune electricity board to cut off the power urgently. At about 8:30, Mr. Nguyen Ba Trung - Head of the technical department of Tan Ky electricity branch was present at the scene. And as a representative of the electricity industry, Mr. Trung said that he only needed to price the dead buffalo according to the market to compensate, so the people were very upset. The anger increased when Mr. Trung kept haggling over the price, even using the excuse of having personal matters to deal with to leave. Chairman of the commune People's Committee Pham Hong Linh had to call the Director of Tan Ky electricity branch and Chairman of the district People's Committee Pham Van Hoa and it was not until early afternoon of the same day that the buffalo compensation was finally resolved.

However, after that, there was another argument because the people wanted the electricity industry to replace the poles with concrete ones for safety, but Mr. Trung insisted on replacing them with temporary wooden poles. Mr. Trung told the people that "he would pay attention, but now they have to use wooden poles because he does not have the right to decide to use concrete poles...". A day later, Dao Nguyen people had to witness the scene where the representative of Tan Ky Electricity Branch bought 3 wooden trees for 200,000 VND/tree to rebuild the fallen power system.

Mrs. Tran Thi Da was indignant: “The electricity infrastructure that my people contributed to build since 1993 is now old and dilapidated, many wooden poles have rotten roots, many concrete poles have broken, tilted, cracked by storms... The wire system is all bare wire, not according to scale standards, in some places it is just two steel wires for safety. In 2009, they sold electricity at home, collected value added tax, but they were not responsible. As professionals, for whatever reason they have not invested in new construction, they must be responsible for checking and reinforcing the pole and wire system to ensure safety for the people. A dead buffalo can be compensated with money, but for a dead person, how can they compensate with rice?”.

With Mrs. Da, we went through almost all the inner-village roads, the fishbone roads where 179 households of Dao Nguyen hamlet live. And with the systems of small, fragile bare wires hanging precariously on concrete poles, old, low, leaning, and crumbling wooden poles, it would be strange if the people here were not worried.

Not just Peach Blossom Spring!

Those were the words of Mr. Tran Van Lan, Party Secretary of Gia De Hamlet. Gia De Hamlet is next to Dao Nguyen Hamlet and shares the same power station. According to Mr. Lan, Gia De Hamlet has up to 25 concrete poles and 36 wooden poles and about 1km of substandard power lines on the fishbone power lines, which are threatening the lives of people and livestock. "There are poles that have broken in half, many poles with rotten legs that people still have to use..." - said Mr. Lan. In Gia De Hamlet, the current state of the power grid is even worse than Dao Nguyen Hamlet. Due to the weak pole system, there are places where the bare power lines sag down to only 20 - 30 cm above people's heads.

Many old electric poles are leaning, need to be supported, have to be joined, there are even concrete poles that have broken in half but are still in use. Ask Ms. Lan and Ms. Da: Have our people given their opinions to the commune about this issue? According to you, not only have opinions been given to the commune, but when the People's Council and National Assembly delegates came to meet with voters, they also said a lot but it seems that they were not heard. The commune is also upset with the electricity industry, not just the people...

According to the Party Secretary of the commune Pham Van Loi, Nghia Dung commune has 1,650 households in 13 hamlets with 7 transformer stations, and there are nearly 180 wooden electric poles. The electricity system here was built by the people themselves since 1993 and has been used until now, so it has degraded a lot. Mr. Loi said: "In principle, when selling electricity at home, everything must meet standards, the wires must be covered, the poles must be strong, but in reality, the electricity industry is using the old infrastructure of the people, so it is not safe. The electricity industry is clearly too slow, so we are mobilizing people to temporarily "save themselves", reinforce unsafe places and continue to request the district to request the Tan Ky Electricity Branch to invest in upgrading the electricity system for Nghia Dung...".

Leaving Nghia Dung, we went to Tan Ky Power Branch. Here, when talking about the incident in Dao Nguyen hamlet, and the people's anger with the electricity industry officials, Director Tran Kien Thiet admitted that his officials were irresponsible and spoke carelessly. "From head of the technical department, I have transferred Nguyen Ba Trung to team leader..." - Mr. Thiet said. At the same time, when talking about the degradation of the power grid infrastructure, because most of the rural power systems when received were in a degraded state, besides having difficulty in capital, according to Mr. Thiet: "There needs to be sharing with our electricity industry".

In the current period, every industry and profession is facing many difficulties and obstacles. But for the electricity industry, if we invest in building and completely replacing new ones, it is really difficult, but with the available expertise, is it too difficult for electricity officials to sympathize with people's concerns and regularly visit the base to check and repair unsafe places? And with what we have heard and seen in Dao Nguyen, Gia De... can anyone sympathize and share with Tan Ky Electricity Branch when people's lives are being threatened by... rows of electric poles when the rainy and stormy season has come.

Nhat Lan