Large irrigation project comes to a standstill
An irrigation project worth VND300 billion (USD14.55 million) in Thua Thien Hue Province has been postponed because of environmental threats.
Several shortcomings
The project is aimed to ensure irrigation for nearly 300 hectares of agricultural land in seven communes in the southwest of Huong Tra District. The project includes the Khe Ngang water reservoir and several irrigation systems which would link different communes.
Even though some parts of the project have been constructed, they are being downgraded because the investors did not comply with standard construction commitments. One newly-built canal section, running through Huong An Commune, suffered from erosion.
Ha Van Truong, a local man from Huong Chu Commune’s Phu O Hamlet, shared, “My hometown floods each year. From what I can see, this new canal will probably not do much to stop the floods."
Several cracks and sinkholes have been discovered in Khe Ngang Reservoir, which is the centerpiece of the entire project. Construction of the reservoir had to stop while these problems were looked into.
According to local residents, the investor has yet to pay promised compensation, which is among the major reasons for the project’s stagnation.
In the end of June 2011, the provincial government urged the investor and contractors to speed up work on the project in order to prevent possible squandering.
Stagnation not a result of lack of capital
Vo Quang Vinh, an official of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and head of the project’s management board, admitted, “The tardiness of compensation payments is due to the lack of personnel. There are only three people who are in charge compensation, so they have not been able to complete the work on time."
In the meantime, Tran Hung Long, Head of Huong Tra District's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development attributed the stagnation to the lack of cooperation between project officials and local authorities. The project’s technical dossier was just recently sent to local authorities.
Because of the slow pace, the local authorities were compelled to allocate land for construction before compensation to residents was completed, he said.
He added that compensation should be complete by December this year.
Who should be held responsible?
According to Vinh, the project strictly complied with all the technical requirements of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), who financed more than VND200 billion (USD9.7 million) of the construction.
His explained that the recorded incidents were due to weather conditions unfavourable to construction. Also, he says, a subcontractor is to blame for having used bamboo poles that were too short for the dam's foundation.
Concerning the cracks and sinkholes in the reservoir, he said, “This is a normal phenomenon during the construction of a reservoir. Consultancy agencies and inspectors have been working to find out the exact causes. We will come into the final conclusion about this issue in the next month."
Careless construction of the irrigation project
The project, Tay Nam Huong Tra, is one the biggest of its kind in the central province of Thua Thien Hue. However it has been riddled with problems such as sluggish construction, along with technical errors and a bad safety record for a long time.Several shortcomings
The project is aimed to ensure irrigation for nearly 300 hectares of agricultural land in seven communes in the southwest of Huong Tra District. The project includes the Khe Ngang water reservoir and several irrigation systems which would link different communes.
Even though some parts of the project have been constructed, they are being downgraded because the investors did not comply with standard construction commitments. One newly-built canal section, running through Huong An Commune, suffered from erosion.
Ha Van Truong, a local man from Huong Chu Commune’s Phu O Hamlet, shared, “My hometown floods each year. From what I can see, this new canal will probably not do much to stop the floods."
Several cracks and sinkholes have been discovered in Khe Ngang Reservoir, which is the centerpiece of the entire project. Construction of the reservoir had to stop while these problems were looked into.
According to local residents, the investor has yet to pay promised compensation, which is among the major reasons for the project’s stagnation.
In the end of June 2011, the provincial government urged the investor and contractors to speed up work on the project in order to prevent possible squandering.
Stagnation not a result of lack of capital
Vo Quang Vinh, an official of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and head of the project’s management board, admitted, “The tardiness of compensation payments is due to the lack of personnel. There are only three people who are in charge compensation, so they have not been able to complete the work on time."
In the meantime, Tran Hung Long, Head of Huong Tra District's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development attributed the stagnation to the lack of cooperation between project officials and local authorities. The project’s technical dossier was just recently sent to local authorities.
Because of the slow pace, the local authorities were compelled to allocate land for construction before compensation to residents was completed, he said.
He added that compensation should be complete by December this year.
Who should be held responsible?
According to Vinh, the project strictly complied with all the technical requirements of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), who financed more than VND200 billion (USD9.7 million) of the construction.
His explained that the recorded incidents were due to weather conditions unfavourable to construction. Also, he says, a subcontractor is to blame for having used bamboo poles that were too short for the dam's foundation.
Concerning the cracks and sinkholes in the reservoir, he said, “This is a normal phenomenon during the construction of a reservoir. Consultancy agencies and inspectors have been working to find out the exact causes. We will come into the final conclusion about this issue in the next month."
Several sink holes discovered
Cracks found in the reservoir
Vo Quang Vinh admits the project lags behind schedule
Separate concrete blocks put together without any cement
Construction of reservoir suspended
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