Building new rural areas in coastal areas: Many difficulties

(Baonghean) - Up to now, after 6 years (2011-2016) of implementing the new rural construction, Nghe An has achieved many encouraging results, including in coastal areas. Many coastal communes have made efforts to mobilize the strength of the entire political system, especially the consensus of the people in donating land and contributing money to build new rural areas.

Typically, in Quynh Luu district, the average of the whole district has achieved 15.8/19 criteria, an increase of 8.5 criteria compared to 2010; currently, 14/32 communes have met the NTM standards, accounting for 44% (exceeding 4 communes compared to the plan); 100% of communes have completed planning according to the province's requirements, meeting the standards of criterion No. 1, of which: 31 communes have completed the NTM planning, Son Hai commune has completed the town planning, and Quynh Thach, Quynh Nghia, and Quynh Bang communes have built to meet the NTM standards and linked the NTM planning with the town planning.

Many coastal communes still lack clean water for daily use. Photo by Thu Huyen

However, with the characteristics of limited land and dense population, the construction of works such as transportation, cultural houses, sports areas, drainage systems, and waste treatment is very difficult.

In the story of new rural areas, in any coastal commune, we always receive objective difficulties; because of the limited land and large population, implementing the new rural criteria, especially transportation, is very difficult.

Like Quynh Long commune (Quynh Luu), although its per capita income is higher than the district's average (reaching 37 million VND/person/year), it is still ranked in the list of difficult to reach the NTM finish line. The reason is that the whole commune has 9,800 people but only 32.9 hectares of residential land; with a density of about 5m2/person, houses are close together, the inner-village roads are only 1-2m wide, and the inter-village roads are only over 3-3.5m wide. Or in Tien Thuy commune, one of the 9 coastal communes of Quynh Luu district, according to the NTM construction planning, Tien Thuy commune has over 2.5km of main roads, 8.5km of inter-village roads, but up to now, only 60% of the commune has met the criteria; the inter-village roads are narrow, only 1-2m wide; the main inter-commune roads are also only 5-6m wide.

Similarly, Quynh Lap commune of Hoang Mai town has a population of 10,200 people but only has less than 40 hectares of residential land, houses are located close to both sides of the mountain, so not only is it narrow but also very difficult to travel because the road is steep, some hamlets have to build stairs to be able to travel. It is known that Quynh Lap commune has 12.2 km of road, but only about half of the inter-hamlet road is accessible by car, the rest can only be traveled by motorbike or on foot.

Not only rural traffic but also many roads serving production and business are seriously degraded.

Coastal communes also lack land to build cultural houses and sports facilities to meet people's needs. Tien Thuy Commune (Quynh Luu) has only 4/9 hamlets with standard cultural houses, and many hamlets do not have land to build cultural houses with sports facilities.

Mr. Dau Duc Nam - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quynh Luu district said: Most coastal communes have difficulty in land funds to build NTM criteria. We are implementing solutions such as linking with land conversion, planning land auctions to arrange land funds to build public works. For communes lacking land, directing to review and find suitable land locations for cultural works according to NTM criteria. This is also a common situation of coastal communes, especially 12 coastal communes with special difficulties in the district.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hang - Deputy Chief of Office of the Provincial New Rural Area Coordination Office said: In response to the shortcomings of coastal communes, the province has planned to adjust the criteria to better suit the actual conditions. Specifically, in Decision 1166/QD-UBND dated March 23, 2017 on the regulations on the contents and criteria for communes meeting the New Rural Area standards for the period 2017 - 2020 (regulated by the province), for communes in coastal areas, regarding traffic criteria, the village main roads are hardened to ensure year-round car travel; the main roads in the fields ensure the transport of goods, then the km rate is reduced to over 50%. Regarding the criteria for cultural facilities, the land area for planning the multi-purpose cultural hall is at least 200m2, the sports area (excluding the stadium area) is 500m2, the stadium area is 2,000m2. This is a necessary adjustment, appropriate to the situation in Nghe An coastal area.

Viet Phuong