Water contaminated with iron, few people use it
In Tinh Long commune, there are currently 2 clean water projects including: Clean water project serving the resettlement area of landslide areas along the river in Tinh Long commune for 139 households. The investor is the Project Management Board of Son Tinh district, the project was built in 2011 and put into use in 2012. Design capacity: 200m³/day and night. Total investment capital is nearly 3.9 billion VND from the State budget. When the project was completed and put into use, only 24/139 households used it, with the water volume of 10m³/day and night.
The second project is a clean water project to provide domestic water for 4 resettlement areas for people affected by the Dung Quat - Sa Huynh coastal road project, section through Tinh Long commune. The project was built in 2012 and put into use in 2013, with a total of 346 households using it. Design capacity: 350m³/day and night. Total investment capital is nearly 11 billion VND from the Dung Quat - Sa Huynh coastal road project, section My Khe - Tra Khuc.
When the project was completed and put into use, only 35/346 households used the water, with a water volume of 6.10m³/day and night. The reason was that the water pipeline was initially damaged, the water supply was contaminated with alum and dirty, causing households to not participate, instead, they drilled wells to get water for daily use. After the authorities fixed the problem, the attempt to persuade households to connect to this water source for daily use was also unsuccessful.
Ms. Truong Thi Nga, Tang Long village, Tinh Long commune confided: "When using water from the clean water project in the commune invested in and built by the State, people saw that the water was yellow, and were afraid that it would affect their health, so people found other water sources to use. The clean water project invested in and built by the State has been abandoned for more than 5 years, which is very wasteful."
State property severely damaged newly proposed for liquidation
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper reporter, Mr. Bui Tan Be - Vice Chairman of Tinh Long Commune People's Committee - said that the above two projects were taken over and operated by Tinh Long Commune People's Committee. By 2018, Tinh Long Commune People's Committee handed over to Tinh Long Agricultural Production, Business and Service Cooperative to continue managing, exploiting and operating, serving the clean water needs of the people in the commune.
In reality, after 5 years, only 59 households participated, with a water consumption of 8m³/day and night. The amount of water lost through the water supply pipeline was too large but the cause was not found. The staff assigned to manage and operate these 2 projects did not have the expertise, so they could not handle the damage and loss of the projects.
Also according to Mr. Bui Tan Be, on October 30, 2020, the report on the management and operation of the two clean water projects above showed inefficiency and losses for 3 years due to the lack of professionals and experience in operating and managing clean water... The cooperative is not capable of continuing to operate and has proposed to hand over to the People's Committee of the commune to take over and operate to ensure the supply of clean water to the people according to actual needs.
The People's Committee of Tinh Long commune has proposed to hand over two clean water projects to the Quang Ngai Center for Domestic Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation for management and operation, but the Center has not taken over because there is no funding for repairs and upgrades; moreover, the projects are severely damaged.
Through inspection of the two clean water projects, the People's Committee of Tinh Long Commune found that the two projects had completely stopped operating since storm No. 9.2020, the technical infrastructure of the projects was severely damaged and could not be repaired, so the People's Committee of the Commune proposed that the People's Committee of Quang Ngai City liquidate the two clean water projects mentioned above. However, according to the reporter's records, if liquidated, the value of the assets recovered would be very small compared to the 15 billion VND that the State budget invested in building these two projects.
