Hydropower disturbs people's lives

Loss of productive land

Located in Vinh Son commune, Vinh Thanh district, Tra Xom hydroelectricity occupies the most land in Binh Dinh province. The total occupied land area is 355.8 hectares. Of which 181.45 hectares is agricultural land.

In 2008, when Tra Xom hydropower plant started construction, Vinh Son commune lost about 80% of its agricultural land, equivalent to 30 hectares, and hundreds of hectares of swidden land. The lives of 117 ethnic minority households have been affected directly.

Particularly, K8 village lost all its agricultural land. However, Tra Xom Hydropower Joint Stock Company did not adequately compensate the relatives, leading to lengthy litigation. The reason is that the investor calculated the compensation land price according to the price of many years ago.

For reasons of slow compensation for site clearance, environmental violations and not yet implemented resettlement and resettlement for people, Vinh Thanh District People's Committee has suspended the construction of Tra Xom and Vinh Son 5 hydropower plants.

Other hydropower projects, such as Vinh Son - Song Hinh, Vinh Son 5... also occupied a lot of land in Vinh Kim commune. Mr. Dinh Khu, Vice Chairman of Vinh Kim Commune People's Committee, said that the commune has 567 households, 2,133 people, 41.76% are poor households.

People are poor, but a small arable land area in Vinh Kim. The area of ​​wet rice in the commune is 33 hectares, divided among the people of three villages as K6, Kon Tru, and O2.

In the remaining three villages of Vinh Kim commune, including Dak Tral, O3, and O5, none of the households have wet rice fields. Land for production is mainly swidden land, short-term industrial crops, and afforestation.

“Short-term industrial crops planted in three villages of Dak Tral, O3 and O5 have unstable yield and often lose. Vinh Kim commune seems to be located in a position where one side is a mountain and one side is the Kon river. The weather is extremely hot in the dry season. During the rainy season, the water overflows. No tree can live" said Mr. Dinh Khu.

Because people in Vinh Kim commune are mainly engaged in agriculture, they do not know how to survive when dozens of hectares of productive land are lost. In order to survive, people arbitrarily destroy forests for farming even though they know it's illegal.

Kon River contaminated

According to people in Vinh Kim commune, the section of Kon River from Vinh Son 5 hydroelectric dam bank to Nuoc Mat stream, about 6 kilometers long, often runs out of water. It is caused by hydroelectricity blocking the flow to produce electricity.

Previously, the Kon River was full of water. It effectively served livestock, farming and had ensured the living conditions of the people in O3 and Dak Tral villages.

“When there was no hydropower, people had enough water for daily life. At that time, there were many fish and snails in the river, which could be used as daily food. Now, in the dry season, people have no water to bathe. Not enough water to drink. Currently, people have to buy plastic pipes to bring water from streams to use", said Mr. Dinh Van Vinh, The village head of Dak Tral.

Due to the depletion of river water, the underground water source is also short. All the wells dug in the village have dried up. Any well that has water is contaminated.

The people's main source of income as cow farming was also lost. Since the hydropower plant, cows have lost their drinking water source and have to drink water from polluted stagnant ponds. That is the source of many diseases in Dak Tral village.