Sa Lang, near yet far

A corner of Sa Lang resettlement village.

The village has 54 households with nearly 300 people. Since moving to the resettlement area, people's lives have improved in terms of housing, national grid electricity and basic infrastructure. However, the biggest difficulty is still the isolated traffic situation. Up to now, all activities of traveling, transporting goods, production, children's education and medical examination and treatment of people all depend on ferries across the Ma River.

Chairman of Phu Xuan Commune People's Committee Cao Hong Duoc said: The lack of a solid bridge across the river has caused many inconveniences to people's lives. To get to the commune center, people have to take a boat for about 10 minutes. During the rainy season, the water rises, the current is strong, and traveling is potentially risky.

"The boat serving the people was mobilized by the commune to mobilize social resources and support maintenance costs, but it only operates at a limited level and cannot meet all the needs," Mr. Duoc shared.

Inconvenient transportation has led to many consequences for people's lives. To buy construction materials such as cement, iron, steel and bricks, people are forced to hire boats and porters, causing costs to increase many times. Meanwhile, local agricultural products such as rice, corn, cassava, bamboo and xoan trees are difficult to transport for consumption, and are often forced down in price by traders.

"Every time we repair a house, we have to carefully calculate the market price. Once, just the cost of hiring a boat to transport materials cost tens of millions of dong. As for the agricultural products, traders are not interested because of the difficulty in transporting them," said Ms. Ha Thanh Quynh in Sa Lang village.

Not only production, but education is also affected. Currently, Sa Lang village has more than 60 students of all levels who have to take a boat across the river to get to class every day. On rainy days, when the water is high, parents are forced to let their children stay home from school to ensure safety, causing their studies to be interrupted. Ms. Cao Thi Nhung, Principal of Phu Xuan Kindergarten, said: “The school has 11 kindergarten students in Sa Lang village. During the rainy season, we let them stay home from school and make up for it on the weekends. In addition, the school also arranges meals for the children to study all day to limit the need to travel across the river.”

Difficulty in transportation also makes it difficult for people to access medical services. In emergency situations such as serious illness, transporting the patient to the other side of the river depends entirely on weather conditions and the rudimentary boat.

To get to Sa Lang resettlement village, people have to cross the river by boat.

According to the people and the commune government, Sa Lang village was previously mentioned to invest in building a community bridge. However, due to the planning of the Hoi Xuan Hydropower Project corridor, this wish has not yet become a reality. The construction of temporary bridges or suspension bridges also encountered many obstacles because they were not on the priority investment list.

Cao Thanh Binh, deputy secretary of the Sa Lang village Party cell, worried: “We have repeatedly requested our superiors to pay attention to investing in a bridge for people, or at least a suspension bridge across the river. But currently the village is not in a particularly difficult situation, so it is difficult to access support resources. Meanwhile, the land for production is limited, and people mainly rely on small-scale agriculture and forestry, self-sufficient.”

Despite having settled down, Sa Lang people still face many difficulties on their journey to stabilize their lives and develop. Traffic obstacles are becoming invisible barriers, limiting development opportunities for the entire community. Currently, in addition to maintaining a temporary ferry terminal with socialized funding, Phu Xuan commune authorities are proposing that Quan Hoa district People's Committee consider putting Sa Lang village on the priority list for investment in transport infrastructure in the coming period. These efforts aim to gradually remove "bottlenecks", improve living conditions and create a foundation for sustainable socio-economic development for local people.

Article and photos: Dinh Giang

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/sa-lang-gan-ma-xa-248187.htm