KHANH HOA (VNS)— Hundreds of families in Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa Province are in serious difficulties after having been moved to a resettlement area in Vinh Hoa District so as to give land for the construction of the Cai River Dyke and Tan Lap housing project.
Located near Hon Kho Mountain, all the houses in the Hon Sen resettlement area are hit daily by rock falls, especially in the rainy season.
Pointing at the rocks, as big as baskets, behind his house, Nguyen Diem, who lives in the resettlement area, said they had come crashing down just a few days before.
In addition, the roof of Diem’s house is perilously close to some large overhanging rocks which could fall on his house any time.
According to Huynh Thin, who moved to the area several months ago, many huge rocks have fallen on nearby houses recently, causing serious damage to residents’ properties.
Not only are they affected by the rock falls, the local residents are also threatened by snakes, which slither into their houses regularly.
“Snakes are found in this area a lot, especially on rainy days”, said Diem.
After having had to move to the area, the life of those people has become even harder, according to Diem.
“As we are fishermen, we found it difficult living here because it is too far from our houses to the market and the wharf where we berth our ships”, Diem said, adding that it was 14km from their houses to the wharf.
Problems with finance is another obstacle for local residents.
Since the compensation for their former houses and land was quite low while the land prices in the resettlement area were too high, all the residents here got into debt after buying land and building houses in the resettlement area, according to Diem.
“I now owe the State VND117 million (nearly US$6,000) while Thin owes VND170 million ($8,000), but we have no way of settling the debt as we had to give up fishing”, he said sadly.
According to the vice chairman of Xuong Huan District, Nguyen Duc Quang, the local authorities have informed the city about the impending construction of a protective wall to prevent soil erosion and rock falls in the area.
“We do hope the city will approve the proposal as soon as possible to make the local residents feel more secure about living in the resettlement area”, said Quang.
The construction of the Tan Lap residential area was licensed in November 2009 with an investment of VND2.7 trillion ($127.7 million). However, due to financial difficulties, the Song Da-Thang Long Joint Stock Company, the investor, has suspended the project indefinitely. — VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News
