Why does the Khe Lai - Vuc Mau Lake Project have to extend the water blockage?

Slow plan to block the flow

Khe Lai Lake - Vuc Mau Projectin Tan Thang commune, Quynh Luu district, phase 1, invested by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The purpose is to provide irrigation water for 1,524 hectares of cultivated land, including rice and industrial crops; at the same time, create a source of domestic water for 11,700 people in the surrounding area, supplementing the water source for Vuc Mau lake with a reserve of 13.4 million m³/year and participate in flood reduction on Hoang Mai River.

This project was approved in June 2009, started in 2010, with a total investment of more than 227.8 billion VND. However, due to many reasons, the project was behind schedule and had to be temporarily suspended in 2017.

To continue building this project, on October 29, 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Decision No. 4228 approving the adjustment of Khe Lai - Vuc Mau Lake Project Phase 1. The total investment of the project is 627 billion VND, of which the cost of site clearance is more than 373 billion VND. According to the plan, the project will be put into use in 2024.

Quynh Luu District People's Committee is assigned to be responsible for compensation and site clearance. Since the beginning of 2022, Quynh Luu District has established a Compensation and Site Clearance Council; Focusing on clearing over 200 hectares of land in the Khe Lai reservoir area, mainly in Tan Thang commune, including forest land, agricultural land, and residential land.

From December 15, 2022 to this point, the site clearance work has completed the measurement and approval of land prices for project site clearance. Completed the inventory and field counting of 829/829 affected land plots, reaching 100%, and applied prices to 758/829 land plots, reaching 91.44%.

19 land reclamation decisions have been issued with an area of ​​149.23 hectares, including: 2.48 hectares of residential land and garden land, 128.75 hectares of agricultural land, 18 hectares of production forest land. 20 decisions have been issued approving compensation, support and resettlement plans with an amount of 188,353 billion VND. Currently, 172,211 billion VND has been paid.

Currently, Quynh Luu district is completing documents to publicly compensate for site clearance with an area of ​​23.24 hectares/58 plots of land/16 households, with an amount of 21,982 billion VND.

On the construction side, the main dam is currently being built up to elevation 45 and reinforced soil is being filled to complete the upper and lower slopes. The mechanical part of the spillway has been completed, with an earth fill volume of over 300,000 m.³, reaching over 60% of the volume.

According to plan, Khe Lai - Vuc Mau Lake Project (Hoang Mai town) will close and block the flow fromMarch 30, 2024, however, due to problems with site clearance, there are not enough conditions to close the canal and block the stream, so the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development must continue to extend the blocking of the stream until April 10, 2024.

Focus on removing difficulties and determining land origin

A representative of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quynh Luu district said: Immediately after receiving the task of compensation and site clearance, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district actively took part, however, the compensation and site clearance work of the Khe Lai - Vuc Mau Lake Project is still facing many difficulties.

The project currently has 215.82 hectares/137 households and 74.8 hectares of forest land that have not been recovered, of which 32.11 hectares are natural forests, so the procedure for changing the forest purpose must be submitted to the Prime Minister for decision. The People's Committee of Nghe An province has sent the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development an explanatory document. In particular, it recommends the Prime Minister to approve the policy of changing the forest use purpose to another purpose.

There are still 7 households in the reservoir area complaining about the compensation from agricultural land to residential land. The district has established a team to verify the content of the complaint about the project's compensation and site clearance for the 7 households that have filed the complaint.

In the project implementation area, in 2003, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 1805 allowing the conversion of forest land to agricultural land, but currently the conversion map has been lost, making it difficult to determine land type and land use process.

The work of determining the origin of land by the People's Committee of Tan Thang commune is still slow, in some cases the origin is not determined accurately (there are 180 plots of land without origin); determining resettlement conditions is still incorrect and needs to be adjusted.

The reason for the slow site clearance of the Khe Lai - Vuc Mau Lake Project is the difficulty in determining the land owner and the origin of the land. For example, in the lake area, many plots of land do not have records or land allocation papers. Some plots of land have differences in land types on different maps, leading to difficulties in determining the land type for compensation and support, not to mention, previously, the purchase and resale of land did not go through the government.

The early damming and closure of the Khe Lai - Vuc Mau Lake Project plays a very important role. In addition to storing water for production and daily life, the project also proactively responds to extreme weather...

In order for the project to be completed on schedule from April 10, 2024, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district is focusing on the remaining tasks such as: Extracting and supplementing incorrect land plots, completing the review of forest conversion. Directing the People's Committee of Quynh Thang commune to complete the work of determining the origin of land plots to serve site clearance. Pricing and approving plans, reclaiming land for the remaining plots...