Bright future for Vinh River
(Baonghean.vn) - Vinh River occupies an important position in the heart of Vinh city. Therefore, the City Party Committee and People's Committee are very interested in renovating, upgrading, and changing the current status of Vinh River towards improving the environment, creating landscapes, urban spaces...
Anxious... Vinh River
(Baonghean) - From Ben Thuy bridge, Vinh River meanders, embracing Dung Quyet mountain, winding through the lands of Trung Do, Vinh Tan, Cua Nam... like a soft silk strip with two beautiful green banks. But it will be the opposite, if you go along Vinh River along the two high and low dikes. The beauty, poetry, and romance are no longer there...
This is the affirmation of Mr. Phan Duc Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Secretary of Vinh City Party Committee regarding the report "Anxious... Vinh River" reported by Nghe An Electronic Newspaper on November 5, 2019.
There is a feasible project
The attention to renovating, upgrading, and changing the current status of Vinh River towards improving the environment, creating landscapes, urban spaces, etc. that Vinh City Party Secretary Phan Duc Dong discussed is demonstrated in the Project "Sustainable urban development and adaptation to climate change in Vinh City and Nghe An Province". This project consists of 3 components. In which, renovating and upgrading Vinh River is the main item of component 2 "Urban renovation to adapt to climate change". And the Vinh River section that is prioritized for renovation is located in the South of the city, from Duoc Bridge to Ben Thuy wharf with a length of about 5.8 km.
Regarding the current status of Vinh River, the project provides detailed information that closely matches the content of the report.“Anxious… Vinh River”. That is, the two banks of the river are natural land banks, the riverbed is silted, some sections are eroded and encroached; many sections of the river do not have management roads; many years without dredging, many sections of the river are silted, affecting the flow of water.
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| Vinh River through Cua Nam and Vinh Tan wards. Photo: Thanh Cuong |
On the other hand, in recent years, with the speed of urbanization, the population density living near the river has increased significantly. In addition, people's awareness is not high, leading to the situation of littering and indiscriminate discharge into the river; along with that, there is often a large amount of wastewater from wards in the city, so the river is increasingly seriously polluted. At the same time, due to the impact of climate change and unusual weather changes, the river's flow is increasing rapidly, the current drainage capacity cannot meet the demand, leading to frequent flooding in related areas.
Therefore, it is necessary to renovate and dredge the riverbed, combined with embankments on both sides of the river to enhance drainage capacity to adapt to climate change, solve flooding, landslides, collect wastewater to improve the environment, create landscapes and urban spaces, contribute to improving people's lives and promoting the city's socio-economic development...
To renovate and upgrade Vinh River, the project clearly defines the investment items and work to be done, including: Dredging the riverbed and building embankments along the river; upgrading and renovating management roads along both river banks; synchronously building technical infrastructure systems including drainage systems, lighting systems and other infrastructure systems; building landscapes, trees and walking paths along both river banks... The total investment capital for renovating and upgrading Vinh River is expected to be more than 37 million USD from preferential loans from the World Bank.
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| World Bank delegation conducts field survey on Vinh River. Photo: Binh Tran |
Regarding access to preferential loans from the World Bank, according to Mr. Nguyen Trung Dung - Director of the Vinh Urban Infrastructure Sub-project Management Board, there have been initial advantages. Because the Vinh city government has been trusted by the World Bank after successfully implementing the investment project to improve and upgrade infrastructure from preferential loans from this financial institution.
Therefore, when accessing information about the Project "Sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation in Vinh city and Nghe An province", on November 4-8, 2019, the World Bank sent a working group to conduct a field survey. After that, the working group had meetings with Vinh city and Nghe An province and gave good assessments and comments. Currently, there is a Memorandum of Understanding to determine the project.
“After the Provincial People’s Committee sent the proposal to relevant ministries and branches, the Ministry of Planning and Investment reported to the Government on the project “Sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation in Vinh city and Nghe An province”. Currently, the Government has assigned relevant ministries and branches to appraise. If approved, the Government will approve the project list. At that time, Nghe An province and Vinh city will take the next steps…”.
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| Master plan of the Project "Sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation in Vinh city and Nghe An province". |
The problems will be solved.
According to Vinh City Party Secretary Phan Duc Dong, in addition to the contents of the Project "Sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation in Vinh city and Nghe An province" to be implemented in the future, Vinh city also aims to connect the two banks of the South and North Vinh River from Duoc bridge to Ben Thuy wharf to promote urban development through investment in the construction of bridges and roads.
The Vinh City Party Secretary said that currently, there are Den Bridge, Tan Phuong Bridge, Tung Binh Bridge, Cua Tien 1 Bridge, Cua Tien 2 Bridge and the Railway Bridge across the Vinh River. Of these, Tung Binh Bridge will be renovated and its surface area will be expanded; Den Bridge will be repaired. In addition, the city will invest in building two large bridges across the Vinh River during the implementation of the two extended Le Mao and Tran Hung Dao roads connecting to the Lam River road.
“Vinh City is determined to implement these contents. Because only by doing so, Vinh city will have breakthrough changes and develop to the South…”.
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| Tan Phuong Bridge across Vinh River. Photo: Nhat Lan |
Regarding the problems on both banks of the Vinh River, the most noteworthy is the petition of the households in Yen Giang block, Vinh Tan ward about the restriction of land use rights, while the Nam Cua Tien New Urban Area project of Danatol Joint Stock Company was adjusted in planning, building solid houses close to the riverbank. To learn about this content, on April 24, 2019, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Document No. 1137/SNN-CCTL to report to the Provincial People's Committee. Here, it is clearly stated that according to the provisions of the Law on Irrigation, with a flow rate greater than 10m3/s, the protection range of Vinh River works from the foot of the outer slope must be from 3 - 5m. The Nam Cua Tien New Urban Area Project of Danatol Joint Stock Company has a part of its area within the protection range of Vinh River works.
According to the planning in Decision No. 782/QD.UB.DT dated March 15, 2005, this area is a small riverside service area; but currently it is adjusted in Decision No. 2216/QD.UB-DT dated October 26, 2010 to become 32 small riverside residential and service lots. Therefore, to ensure the safety and service capacity of the Vinh River project, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development requests the Provincial People's Committee to direct the project investor to invite a qualified consulting unit to conduct an inspection, survey and assessment of the potential impact on the safety and service capacity of the Vinh River project, and report the results to the competent authority to propose a solution.
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| The problem of environmental pollution, people's limited land use rights... will be resolved in the near future. Photo: Nhat Lan |
On May 13, 2019, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document 2875/UBND-CN directing Danatol Joint Stock Company to implement the contents proposed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, requiring it to be completed and reported to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Construction and the People's Committee of Vinh City before May 20, 2019 for these agencies to review and review legal regulations and advise the Provincial People's Committee to handle them in accordance with regulations. However, as of November 1, 2019, Danatol Joint Stock Company had only signed a contract with the University of Transport to conduct "Research and assessment of the potential impact on the safety and service capacity of Vinh River works when implementing the Cua Tien New Urban Area Project, Vinh City, Nghe An".
According to Vinh City Party Secretary Phan Duc Dong, the issues in the Nam Cua Tien New Urban Area project of Danatol Joint Stock Company are under the authority of the Provincial People's Committee. "This is a problem left by history. It can be seen as a "dark spot" that needs to be contained for handling at an appropriate time. As for other problems on both sides of the Vinh River, they will all be calculated and resolved when the Project "Sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation in Vinh city and Nghe An province" is approved by the Government and allowed to be implemented..." - Vinh City Party Secretary discussed.
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| Vinh River through Trung Do ward. Photo: Thanh Cuong |
