Sa Lắng, near yet far.

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - Sa Lang village, Phu Xuan commune (Quan Hoa district) is a resettlement village affected by the Hoi Xuan Hydropower Project. Although it is less than 1km as the crow flies from the commune's administrative center, it is separated by the Ma River, making travel, production, and access to public services difficult for the residents.

A view of the Sa Lắng resettlement village.

The village has 54 households with nearly 300 inhabitants. Since relocating to the resettlement area, people's lives have improved in terms of housing, access to the national power grid, and basic infrastructure. However, the biggest difficulty remains the challenging transportation situation. To this day, all activities such as travel, goods transportation, production, children's education, and medical care for residents depend on ferry crossings across the Ma River.

According to Cao Hong Duoc, Chairman of the People's Committee of Phu Xuan commune: The lack of a sturdy bridge across the river has caused many inconveniences for the people. To get to the commune center, people have to take a ferry for about 10 minutes. During the rainy season, the water level rises and the current is strong, making travel risky.

"The ferry service for the local people was established through social mobilization and financial support from the commune, but it only operates intermittently and cannot meet all the demand," Mr. Duoc shared.

Poor transportation infrastructure has led to many negative consequences for people's lives. To buy construction materials such as cement, iron, steel, and bricks, people are forced to hire boats and porters, which increases costs many times over. Meanwhile, local agricultural products such as rice, corn, cassava, bamboo, and acacia trees are difficult to transport for sale, and traders often force down prices.

"Every time we renovate our house, we have to carefully calculate market prices. Once, the cost of renting a boat to transport materials alone amounted to tens of millions of dong. As for the agricultural products we produce, traders aren't interested because of the difficulties in transportation," shared Ms. Ha Thanh Quynh from Sa Lang village.

Not only production, but education is also affected. Currently, in Sa Lắng village, more than 60 students of all levels have to cross the river by ferry every day to get to school. On rainy days, when the water level is high, parents are forced to keep their children home from school to ensure their safety, causing disruptions to their studies. Ms. Cao Thị Nhung, Principal of Phú Xuân Kindergarten, said: “The school has 11 kindergarten students in Sa Lắng village. During the rainy season, we let the children stay home from school and make up for lost lessons on weekends. In addition, the school also arranges lunch for the children who attend school all day to minimize the need to cross the river.”

Difficult transportation also creates many obstacles for people in accessing healthcare services. In emergency situations such as serious illness, transporting patients across the river is entirely dependent on weather conditions and a rudimentary ferry.

To reach the Sa Lắng resettlement area, residents have to cross the river by ferry.

According to residents and local authorities, the Sa Lắng village was previously considered for investment in the construction of a pedestrian bridge. However, due to the planning constraints of the Hồi Xuân Hydropower Project's corridor, this aspiration has yet to materialize. The construction of temporary bridges or suspension bridges also faces many obstacles as they are not on the list of priority investment projects.

Cao Thanh Binh, Deputy Secretary of the Party Branch of Sa Lang village, expressed his concern: “We have repeatedly petitioned the higher authorities to invest in a pedestrian bridge, or at least a suspension bridge across the river. However, the village is not currently classified as particularly disadvantaged, making it difficult to access support resources. Meanwhile, arable land is limited, and the villagers mainly rely on small-scale, self-sufficient agriculture and forestry.”

Despite having settled down, the people of Sa Lắng still face many difficulties in their journey to stabilize their lives and develop. Transportation obstacles are becoming an invisible barrier, limiting the development opportunities of the entire community. Currently, in addition to maintaining the temporary ferry terminal with socialized funding, the Phu Xuan commune government is proposing to the Quan Hoa district People's Committee to consider including Sa Lắng village in the list of priority areas for transportation infrastructure investment in the coming period. These efforts aim to gradually remove the "bottleneck," improve living conditions, and create a foundation for sustainable socio -economic development for the local people.

Text and photos: Dinh Giang

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