Resettlement project has lasted 14 years but has not been occupied yet
The project to build Khe Mu resettlement area, Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district (Nghe An province) was approved by the People's Committee of Nghe An province in 2009. The project is invested by Nghe An Rural Development Department with a capital of nearly 80 billion VND. The project's goal is to help more than 100 floating fishing households on Lam river stabilize their lives and reduce poverty.
After many years of being unfinished due to lack of capital, in 2020, this project continued to be allocated an additional 5 billion VND to complete the cultural house, roads, and electricity. The project investor said that in 2022, the project's infrastructure was completed, but to date, no residents have moved into this resettlement area. The two completed cultural houses have become grazing grounds for local people, with overgrown trees around them looking very miserable.
Mr. Nguyen Van Ha, a local resident, said: “The project has reclaimed hundreds of hectares of land from the people for many years but the construction was unfinished and then abandoned. People saw the abandoned land as a waste, so some people used it to plant acacia trees. Two cultural houses of two residential areas were completed many years ago, but people left them abandoned, causing cattle to defecate there. Recently, the investor continued to complete the construction and then closed the doors. The houses are not in use so they have signs of deterioration, it looks very pitiful.”
Recently, according to the report of Thanh Thuy Commune People's Committee, after checking, 8 households have re-encroached on the land of this resettlement area project to plant acacia. The commune government has requested the households to stop encroaching and return the land to the project.
Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee, said: The investor announced that the project has basically completed the infrastructure items. However, the production land of the people that was previously planned has not been distributed to the people, so the district has not dared to accept the handover for fear of "leaving the child in the lurch".
According to Mr. Thanh, dividing the land for production to the people will take a lot of time and money to measure, but it is not known where to get the source. "In the near future, the investor and the district will meet to find a solution" - Mr. Thanh said.
Mr. Le Van Luong - Head of Nghe An Rural Development Department, said: The project has completed the construction of infrastructure items according to the approved design and has been approved by departments and branches for handover to the locality. Currently, the Department is coordinating with Thanh Chuong District People's Committee to complete the procedures for handover and put into use. In 2020, Thanh Chuong District People's Committee reviewed and identified 105 households without land or legal housing that are eligible for resettlement in Khe Mu resettlement area. However, up to this point, no households have been able to move in.
People "waiting with long necks"
More than 10 years have passed, more than 100 fishing households in Vo Liet and Thanh Chi communes (Thanh Chuong district) have been looking forward to moving ashore to resettle, but because the resettlement area has been under construction for too long, many families have had to go ashore to build temporary houses near the riverbank to take shelter. After decades of drifting on the river, Mr. Nguyen Viet Minh (born in 1951) and his wife could not live on the old boat forever, so they had to go ashore to build a temporary house on the bank of Lam River to take shelter. The couple's 4 children have started families, cannot live here, and have had to go elsewhere.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Minh said, dismayed: “My wife and I are old now, we can’t fish on the river, so life is even more difficult. We’ve been waiting for the resettlement area for too long, we’re so tired, we heard the project was finished but I don’t understand why we still haven’t been there yet.”
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ha (born in 1966) has 3 sons, 2 of whom are married. For many years, the mother and children, grandmother and grandchildren have had to live in a temporary house along the riverbank. Mrs. Ha has registered to move to a resettlement area and has been approved by the government, but to this day she still does not know when she will receive land to build a house.
Another resident also said that for over 10 years, the local government has organized for people to visit Khe Mu resettlement area. People saw that the land was quite large, the asphalt road leading to the place, the infrastructure was quite good, so they had high expectations, but year after year, the dream of "settling down" of the people has not come true.
Meanwhile, the Triều Dương resettlement area (a component of this resettlement project) which was completed in 2015 has not yet met the expectations of the fishing villagers. The local government also said that by 2019, 43 households had received land in this resettlement area. However, after receiving the land, many families could not live on their own due to limited land for production and lack of jobs, so they had to go far away to work. Currently, there are only about 20 households living in this area. Due to the small population, the cultural house and school are abandoned.
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