Vietnam unveils resettlement plan for Son LA hydro plant site
HANOI - The Vietnamese government plans to
spend
VND10 trillion (about US$660 million) on relocating evacuees from the
site
of the Son La Hydro-Power Plant.
The funds, still to be approved by the National Assembly, will
be
spent on building resettlement areas and helping displaced people build
a
new life.
Announcing the plan during a visit to the dam site last week,
deputy
Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan also urged Lai Chau provincial
authorities
and people to start resettling residents so as to finish relocation
work
by
2005.
An ad hoc resettlement steering committee should be set up
immediately for a pilot project to relocate 200 households in the
province's Si Pa Phin District, Tan told officials of the Lai Chau
Provincial People's Committee.
Experience drawn from the pilot project will help multiply such
projects later on, ensuring that relocation work be completed by 2005
and
construction of the plant can begin on time, he said.
The Deputy PM also surveyed the regions of Dien Bien Dong, Si Pa
Phin, Pa So and Binh Lu, where people will be displaced.
Local authorities and people whose homes in Lai ChauTown, Muong
Lay
and Sin Ho districts will be destroyed by the construction of the dam
informed Tan of their wishes and concerns about relocation.
Chairman of the Lai Chau Provincial People's Committee, Quang
Van
Minh, presented two options for resettlement projects according to the
scale of the dam to be constructed.
The first one was for a 265m high dam that would submerge one
township and five districts in Lai Chau, covering about 19,000ha of
land,
thousands of households, offices, schools, health clinics apart from
167km
of inter-provincial and national roads. This would require the
resettlement
of 43,800 people.
The other option was for a 215m high dam which would submerge
one
township and five districts, but displace only 23,200 people.
Deputy PM Tan told the local administration that the Son La
project
was an opportunity for the north-western region in general and Lai Chau
in
particular to re-plan residential areas towards long-term and stable
socio-economic development.
Resettlement sites must be modelled on rural residential areas,
ensuring better accommodation, production conditions and infrastructure
than earlier for the displaced, he emphasised.
Local authorities need to quickly plan the new resettlement
areas,
select occupations suitable to each area so that agricultural and
industrial production complements the forestry and processing industry,
he
said.
They should also start mobilising people right away to develop
forestry, growing 1,000ha of pine forests each year to supply material
to a
paper mill to be built in the area.
On the other hand, more investment will be poured into tea, pine
and
sugarcane planting and diary farming in new economic zones like Si Pa
Phin,
Cha Cang, Muong Toong and Muong Nhe, Tan said.
The Son La plant will be located upriver from the major
hydro-electric plant at Hoa Binh, which produces 1,920MW of power.
Construction work on the plant has been delayed until 2004 due
to
financial reasons, and environmental and safety concerns.
When the 3,600MW power plant is completed by 2016, it is
expected
to
protect the region from flooding and help irrigate rice fields in the
dry
season, apart from adding to the stability and safety of the Hoa Binh
plant.
Vietnam News Agency - August 21, 2001.
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