Along the Dakrong River section from A Rong Tren village (La Lay commune) to Ba Bay village (Ta Rut commune), about 20km long, scattered on both banks appeared a number of groups of people digging for gold. They are all local people, carrying hoes, shovels, crowbars, gold mining hats, working manually right on the riverbed and riverbank.
At the section of the river passing through Ba Bay village, people dug holes to scoop soil and put it on carts to the riverbank to process gold. And at the section of the river passing through A Rong Tren village, dozens of people divided into many small groups processed gold on a length of about 100m. The river water in this section is shallow, only reaching the edge of the foot. After processing soil and rocks, people collected tiny gold beads and sold them for about 100,000 - 150,000 VND/day, some lucky people earned about 200,000 VND.
What is worrying is that many riverbank locations are dug deep 1 - 2m, the embankment is 3 - 5m high, soil and rocks are taken away, leaving large, disjointed piles, losing linkage. Right above these landslide points is the Ho Chi Minh Road West branch - a vital traffic route connecting La Lay international border gate with the inland, where a large amount of goods are transported from Laos and Thailand each year.
Mr. Le Quang Thach - Chairman of La Lay Commune People's Committee said that the situation of people hoarding mineral gold along the river has existed for many years. It is very dangerous for people to dig their jaws into the riverbank. The commune will direct officials and police to grasp the situation, propagate, and prevent to limit risks.
