Hydroelectric Dam Project in Ban Ve village was approved by the government and officially started in 2003. To cater for the clearance of construction, the project has displaced more than 2,000 households (10,000 people) from the reservoir area which covers five communes as Kim Da, Kim Tien, Huu Khuong Duong and Luan Mai of Tuong Duong district, Nghe An province.

In February 2006, the first village was relocated to resettlement in Thanh Huong commune, Thanh Chuong district. The process of relocation of the remaining villages lasted until 2010 to complete, due to the conditions of moving houses and properties of local people to the resettlement areas meet very many difficulties such as transportation, vehicles, long distance and complicated road – around 250 -350 km from the former residence to the new places. Therefore, the transportation of human and properties in the reservoir area to new resettled locations took a lot of time and money. The relocation has extended to more than 4 years to complete.

After arriving in the new resettled areas, two villages as Nhan Pa and Muong were merged into Thanh Thinh commune. The rest merged to Thanh Huong commune. Due to the large differences in culture, customs and all other social aspects, the inclusion of resettled people to the community, as well as getting use with the environment, climate in new places are extremely difficult. Moreover, after arriving in the new areas, resettled people have to worry for their stability of accommodation, place of production and improvement of the life.

In May 2009, Ngoc Lam commune was established under Decree 07/CD-CP of the Government on the basis of adjusting a part of Thanh Huong and Thanh Thinh commune, Thanh Chuong District with an area of 8,922.7 hectares of land, including 6 villages, 2,725 demographics of Kim Tien commune; 3 village with about 1,435 inhabitants of Huu Khuong commune; 2 villages with 1,073 people of Huu Duong commune and 3 villages with 1,585 people of Luan Mai commune.

The interim apparatus of Ngoc Lam commune which includes the key officials of the four removal communes due to the reservoir area of hydropower dam construction is responsible to stabilize the lives of people and actively prepare conditions for the First Party Congress of the commune as well strengthening its government structures, functional offices and socio-political organizations in 2010. Due to the new establishment on the basis of the four dissolved communes, about 60 people including civil servants, full-time and part-time staffs of the four communes become jobless. So far, this number of officers hasn’t got any unemployment compensation in accordance with the policy. This is one of the major obstacles in the minds of the people and officials.

As of October 2012, Ngoc Lam has 14 villages, 1,369 households, 5720 people in which the Thai ethnic minority people accounted for 98.2%, the rest of the Kho Mu, Tho, O Du and Kinh (Vietnamese).

As soon as the commune established in 2009 until today, the commune People’s Committee has cooperated with functional offices of the district People’s Committee, Hydropower Dam Building Project Management Team and its Advisory Unit to classify land which was withdrawn by the project to allocate for the people. Up to the present, land revenue of 13/14 villages are finished to allocate for the people. Totally, the project has withdrawn and reallocated about 2,277.2 hectares of productive land for villagers, with an  average of 2,500 m² of productive land / head, 228.2 ha residential land / head and other types of land of rivers, streams (about 251 ha). However, due to many external reasons,  some villages have still not been allocated by the average of the commune, including:

Due to the rocky land and a part for inter-village road building, on average one labor in Nhan Nhinh village is allocated about 1,900 m² of land, in which the plain land was allocate about 400 m2/head, other land is about 1,500m²/head.

Due to the problems regarding the planning of cemetery of Xop Pe village, 10 households in Ma village have not been allocated land. Other 30 households were already allocated. Yet, these the allocated land areas are too steep so unlikely for production. Therefore, totally 40 households of this village still do not have production land.

As for Kim Hong village, the land area which was allocated will ensure sufficiency according the average of the commune for about 2,500 m2 per head. However, as most villagers returned their former villages, only 35 households (150 people) have got enough land on average.

In the process of allocation for different types of land, the communal people’s committee has encountered some problems. Relating to residential land, according to the project’s measurements, each resettled household will be allocated from 800-1200 m² of residential land. However, there are many differences between the planned documents (planned maps) and reality (too steeping land, land adjacent to streams so risky of annual flooding). In particular, in some villages like Muong village, one head was only allocated from 250 to 350 m² of residential land. This is causing people distressed.

For agricultural land, due to the prolonged moving, the allocation of land was not implemented promptly after resettlement. The resettled families who came to settle first have taken the not yet allocated land for production to improve their life. So, resolution of the overlap between households who will be allocated land and those who are having products (crops, plants) on land was settled effectively by the local authorities.

Kim Hong is the last resettled village (2010). The land expected for allocation was taken by the early resettled families in different villages for short-term production to improve their lives. Therefore, the clearance of all products in this area was actively involved by local government for a quite long time. During the period of resolution, all resettled families in Kim Hong village returned their former place for production. Therefore, to the present time, 72/102 families of Kim Hong village have not yet back to the new resettled area to get land for production.

Total land revenue of the remaining villages was allocated (average 2,500 m² per head, 1 ha / household). This allocated land is mainly steep areas, has a limitation of plain land for agricultural production, so that is only suitable for forestry purposes.  Therefore, villagers used this allocated land for growing cassava for 1 to 2 seasons, then plant pulpwood trees. Some others, even though the resettlement has finished for 4 years ago, have been yet allocated land due to the inefficiency of land or even the unclearance of farms of outsiders who have contracted with Thanh Chuong Forestry Enterprise. With such a limited allocated area of ​​land, most of the labor force in these villages becomes unemployed. They have to return their former villages or migrate to other regions to seek land for production.
For forest land, Ngoc Lam has a quite large of natural forest and land. However, this area is interspersed between the resettled plots. The entire area of ​​production forest is under the management of state forestry enterprise, currently converted as Management Board of Protection Forest of Thanh Chuong district, and families in other communes who have contracted with the stated forestry enterprise in the past. So, until now, Ngoc Lam has not implemented allocation of forestland.

Before this situation, the Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee issued Decision No. 80/QD-UBND dated 24/05/2012 on the withdrawing of 1,779.9 ha of forest land in Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes which have been managed by Thanh Chuong District Management Board of Protection Forest so as to allocate for families and individuals.

Gradually ensuring the self-sufficient food of resettled populations, the Project Management Board conducted survey and design a reclaimed land with an area of 9.7 ha to make rice fields for people.

In spite of the interest of the project and the state; local authorities have issued many resolutions and decisions, but the resettled families are still facing many difficulties.

First is the problem of agricultural land. Even though, the project is supporting local people to develop reclaimed fields as mentioned above, this area is too small compared to the commitment of the project specified in the provisional regulations on investment of constructing the resettled areas of the Ban Ve Hydropower Dam, as well minimum needs of the people. On forest land, although the Decision 08/QD-UBND.DC dated 24/05/2012, but the identification of boundaries in the field, reviewing and classification of lands and so forth to set up land records have not been made.

In addition, the status of resettlement housing constructed by the project has so far been seriously degraded. The bad quality of materials i.e. wood would lead to the risk of house breaks and accidents. The resettlement households received compensations from the project are special difficulties. They are unable to self-repair the situation deteriorated houses. Many households have to move down to live under the crawlspace of house to ensure the safety of people.

Given the abovementioned problems, Ngoc Lam communal people’s committee has a number of recommendations as follows:

Relating to agricultural production land: Taking full advantage of the existing plain areas where have at least 1 ha of land with the available water sources, the project needs to design and make reclaimed fields for resettled people to produce sufficient foods; the provincial people’s committee soon approves the plan in growing commercial tee for the two resettled communes to contribute to reduce poverty sustainably.

Relating to forestland: The government needs to withdraw the scattered plots of forest and entire area of production forest which is contracted with outside families by the Management Board of Protection Forest to reallocate for resettled families to protect, rehabilitate and replant forest.

Relating to resettled housing:  The project and contractors need to be responsible to monitor and assess the current state of resettlement houses in order to have timely and proper solutions. After just only 4-6 years using, these resettled houses are already seriously degraded. So, is the quality of construction in accordance with the requirements and regulations of the government ensured?

Lo Huy Hung
(Source: Workshop Proceeding on Land Management and Utilization in Ethnic Minority Communities in Upland Vietnam hosted by SPERI/CODE/CIRUM on 1^st November 2012)