According to the plan, by the end of 2023, the Tra Khuc River downstream dam project (located in Tinh An and Nghia Dung communes, Quang Ngai city, Quang Ngai province) will be completed, accepted and put into operation. However, this project is currently facing many difficulties and problems... Even when the project is completed, it will be difficult to put into operation.
Sparsely populated
Present at the dam construction site in early April 2023, we witnessed a quiet scene with few construction workers. From the intersection of Hoang Sa Street to the dam (North bank), for many months, there have been very few construction workers. Many items are still unfinished, steel waiting from the pillars to complete the road surface has begun to rust. In the middle of the dam, the operator has completed the rough construction but has been left unfinished for many months, with overgrown trees and grass, rusting steel everywhere...
Sparse workers constructing the dam project downstream of Tra Khuc River
Mr. Tran Van L. (a construction worker) said that currently, there are about 30-40 workers from the 3 winning contractors working on the road construction every day, while the irrigation part has been basically completed. "There used to be a time when there were up to a thousand workers and a lot of heavy machinery and equipment working on the construction. But from the beginning of 2023 until now, because the volume has not been paid, some contractors have withdrawn most of the workers and machinery to other places. Now the project has very few workers working on a temporary basis" - Mr. L. said.
Mr. Tran Hoa, a resident who is subject to relocation for the dam project, said that from after Tet to the end of the 7th lunar month is the time when the Tra Khuc River is dry, the weather is sunny and dry, very favorable for dam construction, but since the beginning of the year, there have been very few construction workers. "My house is located in the middle of the dam, subject to relocation and clearance. The project has been implemented for many years, but my family has not been relocated or resettled yet," said Mr. Hoa.
Difficulty in funding
Mr. Le Quoc Dat, Director of the Quang Ngai Province Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board (the investor), said that the biggest problem of the project at present is that it is not possible to determine the land price and calculate land use fees when the state arranges resettlement land for some households in the project area.
The dam project downstream of Tra Khuc River is unfinished after many years.
"The total value of the volume implemented so far is 1,048 billion VND, reaching about 80%. The project needs to arrange an additional 430 billion VND, but after balancing, the province has only arranged 200 billion VND. Due to the lack of balanced capital arrangement, the project was agreed to extend the implementation progress to August 2024" - Mr. Dat said.
According to Mr. Dat, for the compensation and site clearance items alone, 37.78/38.6 hectares have been handed over to the contractor, reaching 97.8%. The area of land that is stuck is about 8,200 m2, of which 6,452.6 m2 is residential land (60 plots/52 households) of households in An Phu village, Tinh An commune, Quang Ngai city. In the past time, the joint venture contractor has simultaneously constructed irrigation, traffic, civil and technical infrastructure items. Currently, workers are focusing on completing the bridge deck on the dam on the South bank.
"In the immediate future, we will coordinate with relevant units to resolve land clearance issues and start construction of the bridge first to serve the people. Once the land is available, we will quickly complete the bridge on the dam. The completed bridge will be put into service to shorten travel time between the two river banks," Mr. Dat added.
According to many construction experts in Quang Ngai, although the investor has extended the project completion time to 2024, even when the project is completed, there is a risk that it cannot be put into operation. Because according to many experts, currently, residential and urban areas in Quang Ngai discharge wastewater directly into Bau Ca and Hao Thanh canals to Tra Khuc river. Meanwhile, the wastewater discharge outlets of these canals are much lower than the rising water level of the dam project. Thus, the river water will push wastewater back along the drainage canal into residential and urban areas, causing both pollution and the risk of flooding...
"I think that to put the dam project into operation, it is necessary to upgrade and renovate the entire wastewater system of Quang Ngai City. This requires a lot of time and money, it cannot be done in a day or two" - a construction engineer in Quang Ngai said.
The Central Inspection Commission concluded that the project had many violations.
The Tra Khuc River downstream dam project has a total investment of 1,500 billion VND. This is a combined irrigation and transportation project, the main goal is to raise water on the Tra Khuc River, through Quang Ngai City. The project started in July 2019 and is expected to be completed in 2021. In August 2020, the Central Inspection Committee announced the conclusion that the project had many violations during the implementation process. At the same time, the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the project to temporarily stop construction.
Due to many problems, the project's progress was also extended from 2021 to 2023. Chairman of Quang Ngai Provincial People's Committee Dang Van Minh repeatedly urged the investor to speed up the progress and complete the project by the end of 2023. However, this project once again had to extend the progress to August 2024.
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