100,000 to be relocated for huge Vietnamese hydro-power project
HANOI - Vietnam revealed Monday it is to go ahead with a massive
hydro-power project, despite concerns over the forced relocation of more
than 100,000 people to a part of the country already under enormous
immigration pressure.
State media reported that Communist Party Secretary General Nong Duc
Manh told the country's parliament at the weekend the governing politburo
had approved the massive project which will see more than 450 square
kilometres inundated in the northwestern provinces of Son La and Lai Chau.
Construction is anticipated to begin in 2003, and will see approximately
100,000 ethnic minority people relocated to Vietnam's Central Highlands,
where a flood of migration over the past 20 years has been identified as a
major contributor to a rebellion by indigenous groups earlier this year.
Hanoi is considering three options for the project, costing between 1.6
and 5.1 billion dollars. It is expected to generate up to 3,600 megawatts of
electricity.
Manh told the National Assembly the project would not only supply
much-needed electricity to North Vietnam's struggling economy, but would
also play an important role in improving flood control in the heavily populated
Red River Delta.
Earlier this year Nguyen Van Lang - deputy chairman of the People's
Committee in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak where the
population has increased six-fold since 1975 - conceded immigration pressure
was a significant factor behind widespread social unrest which rocked the
region in March.
He said further immigration would only increase that pressure, but that if
the government in Hanoi ordered the relocation local authorities had no choice
but to comply.
The Son La People's Committee declined to comment on the project, but
Professor Nguyen Tri Vieng of Hanoi's Water Resources University agreed
the social and political fall-out could be severe.
"We are well aware of the potential political impact, but we have very few
alternatives," he said. "The project has been planned for 20 years so the
people have been living with uncertainty for a long time. The government
prefers relocation nearby, but neither Son La nor Lai Chau has much available
arable land."
But foreign donors and non-governmental organisations working in
Vietnam's northwest said yesterday they knew little of the plan and expressed
concern that the full social impact had not been taken into proper account.
"We haven't been approached for finance, but if we were to be
approached we would argue that social impact be a bigger factor in any
assessment," said the Hanoi-based head of one multi-lateral donor. "Our bias
would be that Vietnam still has huge untapped reserves of natural gas, the
exploitation of which would be a lot less disruptive," he said.
Power Marketers.com - June 11, 2001.
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