Dang Ngoc Quang
Rural Development Services Centre
Hanoi, June 2008
Introduction
This survey report is made to give an account of a three day trip made in from 24 to 26 January 2008, as an exploration to an area, hosting the Song Bung 4 Hydro Power Project to be finance by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The multi-disciplinary team is made of two researchers from Rural Development Services Centre (RDSC), a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), one from Bank Information Centre (BIC), and one from Foundation International for Development and Relief (FIDR, a Japanese NGO). The purpose of this visit is to make a rapid assessment of how ADB and its partners adhere to their policy on information disclosure and public consultation, as well as social and enviromental and ethnic minority safeguard policies.
The team paid a visit to the Nam Giang District People Committee, where the local government shared their view on the project and the process of its formulation.
In the Cong Don Village, the survey team hold a group dicussion with four village leaders. The discussion was conducted arround ther impression about the Song Bung Hydropower project, resettlement plan, their concerns about the resettlement, and their proposals to the donors.
The Song Bung 4 Hydro power project
The Song Bung 4 Hydro power project is planned for a capacity of 165 MW. It is located in the Vu Gia–Thu Bon basin. A project component is a dam of 120 m high, 360 m long and 340 m wide, which would be built across the Bung River. A reservoir is to be created with a storage capacity of 621 million cubic meters and a surface area of 18.4 km2. It is estimated that the reservoir inundation would require 188, mainly ethnic minority families (1096 individuals) in 5 hamlets and 10 households from flooded section of the Highway 14D to be resettled. The total project cost is estimated at $254 million.
Affected community
The Zuoih commune is the main affected community by the Song Bung 4 hydro-power project. The commune is classified as among the poorest communes to be supported by the national poverty reduction programme or Programme 135. There are 1460 people inhabit the commune, who are ditributed in 307 families. Most of the inhabitants are Ka Tu, an ethnic minority in the Centre of Vietnam; few Kinh people are immigrants from the low land, and engage in trade.
To our observation, local people make their living from wet-rice crops, hilly rice, and slop-farm crops. Few animals were seen in the visited village. There, the villagers lived in houses built in a circle with Guol, a community house, as a centre. The village is located in a small valey, surrounded by hills and mountains. The villagers are dependant on their forest for non-timber forest pruducts to comlement their income. We saw bulks of rattans, and the chít broom grasses collected by villagers, mostly women, for sale to the Kinh traders.
Among six villages in Zuoih commune, four are to be involuntarily resettleded because their land will be submerged for the reservoire; they are Pahdi, Pa Rum A, Pa Rum B and Village Two. Total number of families to be resettled is 206, of which 198 are of the Ka Tu group. The other two villages, Cong Don and Pa Pang are planned as receving communities, who will hold the resettlers.
In addition to the Zuoih commune, the Thon Vinh village of the Ta Binh commune and the Song Tranh (the Tranh River) Conservation Area, are also directly and in-directly affected. Some hilly land used for rice and forest will be lost for the sake of the hydropower project.
Information disclosure and consultation: the district government
The local government of the Nam Giang district was involved in the project preparation and design, but a a limited way. Until our visit, the last information the Nam Giang district have access to is the workshop material on REMDP in Sep 2006. Exchanging their information with the research team, the government officers were not informed, nor aware of the most recent version of the Resettlement and Ethnic Minority Development Plan, which was available to the research team.
The district government reported that they started having access to internet in Dec 2007. However, they did not know how to get to ADB website for posted reports. The research team took an opportunty that the district government has recently access to internet to show them how to log onto the ADB Website for the lastest English version of the REMDP on the Song Bung 4. While the government officers were grateful for this REMDP, as it is written in English, it is very limited use for the local government officials, none of whom can read or write in English.
In a further discussion, the government welcome the possiblility that an independent NGO come and support the community to have greater awareness about the project REMDP and assist community to access information about the REMPD and its implementation as well as monitor it closely the ADB’s safeguard policy. The government also welcome the possibility that the NGO would assist the community to rehabilitate from the completion of the resettlement.
The Nam Giang district government and the Zuoih community have no information if the Environment impact assessment (EIA) report and draft REMDP will be discussed with them, and how. The research team, revewing the EIA report, also found that it did not cover a major risk that the the dam might collapse.
Information disclosure and consultation: the community
The villagers, to the date of our visit, have never been consulted about the Resettlement and Ethnic Minority Development Plan. They have been contacted by some outsiders, who appered to us, consultants, surveying the area for the “environment and social impact assessment. From the consultation by these people, the villagers got some information about the project.
While the ADB policy stated that :”The affected people were consulted on resettlement sites, livelihood options and they have consented to the proposed resettlement sites and livelihood options” (Source: http://adb.org/Documents/PIDs/36352042.asp.), our further discussion with the villagers found that the contacted villagers in Zuoih commune do not know how many families from Pahdi village will be moved to their territory; when the new families will come; how much of their land and where will be given to the new comers; If the new group will be merged with their community or will be a separate group; if and how they will be compensated for the resource re-directed to new families.
Villagers’ concerns about compensation
At the news that the government planned to develop the hydropower project, the villagers possitively expect that the project will bring infrastruture to the community. The electricity, roads, schools and health posts can be foundation for improving life of the community.
Discussing their impression about the hydro-power project, the village leaders agreed that the villagers in the impacted area were worried about uncertainty on the impact of the project ontheir life, specifically their livelihood and housing in the future. The worries came from the lack of knowledge about the plan government intend to do to the community.
Knowing that they will be resettled, and compensation will be made, the villagers were worried about the inadequacy of the compensation. First of all, the villagers worried for the lack of information on when, how and how much they will be compensated for their losses. For the land to be submerged, the villagers continue using it for cultivation.
Secondly, the villagers do now know where to be resettled, how will be their housing conditions, and if they will have livelihood as good as before resettlement. The most major concern is if they will be able to produce enough food for themselves.
Resource conflicts
Legally, the villagers have not yet obtained the land title, whle they own and use their land to their customay law and rules. The lack of the leal status on land ownership may put the villagers in a disadvantage position in any land disputes on compensation.
To the plan, the communities of Parum and Pahdi will be moved from their location to the land occupied by the Cong Don community. As the villagers of Parum and Pahdi will lose their assets they will be compensated; however, in the “receving” community, villagers also experience resource losses, but there was no discussion on how to compensate them.
The villagers in receiving community expetect that their gardens and farm holdings will be ruined and re-allocated to the resettlers. Their farm land will be shared with incoming families. The limited natural resource, like land, forest, water will be under much higher pressure of the increased population. The receiving community is worried that their life will be worsened-off by the resettment, and the villagers are of the opinion that they should be compensated for their losses as much as the resettlers’ community.
Negative example was observed
The villagers said that they were informed about the compensation principle that their life quality must be better or at least the same as before the resettlement, giving away space for the hydro-power project. But, the experience that they saw in “A Vuong Hydropower project” in a neighbouring district has made them much more concerned about their future. To the villagers, the people in A Vuong district could not maintain the same level of quality of life as before the resettlement. Some villagers quitted the resettment area, they did not like the housing that was made for them by outsiders. They did not like the way the houses were built without their knowledge about how the houses should be designed; without consultation with them on what material should be used, and at what costs.
To the villagers’ knowledge, the people from A Vuong do not have adequate means to maintain livelihood. The money compensated was not sufficient for them to develop their household economy. A popular worry among villagers is that the monetary volume of the compensation will be enough to cover housing costs, but none will be left for supporting development of their livelihood.
In their story telling, the villagers shared with the research team ther concern about the lost of cultural values in the new settlement in various examples. In the A Vuong community, the housing design was inappropriate for keeping fire in winter to keep their houses warm. As family are cold in the main house compartments, they move to kitchen to live. Further, the villagers need smoke for storing seeds and food. The smoke is not possible to make in the house design. In the new settment, the houses are arranged linear as the Kinh’s design, but not in a circular line as their tradition requires, the villagers have to build additional housing.
Concluding note
At the end of the discussion with the research team, the villagers voiced their demand for project donors and implementing agency to comply to their commitment on ensuring that their livelihood and living standards be improved or at least as good as before the project.
There is a possiblity for local NGOs to engage in monitoring the first ADB-supported hydropower project in Vietnam in regards to its ethnic minority and social and environment safe-guard policies. Total hits:
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Last modified:
14/07/2009 01:44:35 PM | 