Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that in 2017, the source of river sand in the Mekong Delta was very large (especially in An Giang and Dong Thap), even serving export to Singapore.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan proposed the Prime Minister to survey all river sand mines in the Mekong Delta. Photo: HX
At that time, river sand was a small economic resource in the large economy of the Mekong Delta region related to the Tien River and its tributaries.
"At that time, there was so much excess river sand that in some places, sand had to be pumped into the middle of the river for ships and ferries to dock," said Mr. Hoan.
However, currently, due to many reasons, including limited sand resources from upstream, the reserves are low, even not meeting the requirements for exploitation.
Mr. Hoan explained: "We see and know that there is a sand mine, but the actual reserves are not as we think. Even if that sand mine has enough reserves, the usefulness of that sand is not guaranteed, because there is a large amount of mud as the representative of Truong Son Construction Corporation just presented at the conference."
Faced with the above situation, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed that the Prime Minister direct the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as well as relevant units to simultaneously survey and inspect all sand mines in the Mekong Delta. From there, they will have a firm grasp of current sand resource data and have long-term direction.
The reason why the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development made such a proposal is because river sand resources in the Mekong Delta are not only for short-term use for current highway projects but also for local projects, urban areas, and industrial parks that will be built next to highways in the future.
One of the river sand mines in Soc Trang province. Photo: HX
"We need to survey and check to determine what we have, how much we have and how long we can use it. This will help avoid the story of contractors winning the bid for this sand mine but not being able to exploit it (due to the poor quality of the river sand) and then having to struggle to find another sand mine. After that, ministries, branches and the Prime Minister have to work hard to handle the source of raw materials for highway projects," Mr. Hoan added.
According to the report of the Ministry of Transport at the conference, with the strong direction of the Prime Minister, localities in the Mekong Delta have made efforts to implement procedures to grant river sand mines for expressway projects. However, currently, due to limited exploitation capacity, it has not met the requirements.
Many mines in Tien Giang, Ben Tre, and Soc Trang provinces, when surveyed and assessed for quality and reserves, did not meet requirements, so they had to look for other mines to replace them, affecting the progress of mine licensing. Although river sand mines in Soc Trang province have large reserves, their licensed mining capacity is very limited, not meeting the demand.
In An Giang province, a project is being implemented to dredge and regulate the flow of the Vam Nao River to use recovered minerals to supply the Can Tho - Ca Mau Expressway Project (1.5 million m3), with an exploitation capacity of 1.2 million m3/year. However, only 0.87 million m3 has been allocated to the project and exploitation has had to stop due to reaching capacity...
Source: https://danviet.vn/bo-truong-le-minh-hoan-de-xuat-thu-tuong-chinh-phu-cho-khao-sat-tat-ca-mo-cat-song-vung-dbscl-2024101613031462.htm
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