Road degradation, people cry out to heaven
Once a familiar stop for many people, Mr. Ho Van Thanh's snack shop (Huc Nghi village, Ta Rut commune, Quang Tri province) is now desolate. The reason is not because the food is not attractive, but because of the thick layer of dust from the Ho Chi Minh Road West branch right in front of the door.
Mr. Thanh recounted that since the road surface seriously deteriorated, heavy trucks have continuously passed by, causing dust to fly everywhere. At times, dust covered tables and chairs, clinging to food, making customers hesitant and not daring to stop by. "I once had to close the shop for nearly a year. After reopening, I switched to delivering goods to the place, but it didn't improve much because it was too dusty and the road was too difficult to travel" - Mr. Thanh said.
Not only business is affected, but his family's daily life is also disrupted. Houses are always closed, covered with tarpaulins, but dust still creeps everywhere.
Not only Mr. Thanh's family, dozens of households in Huc Nghi village and surrounding areas are living with prolonged pollution. According to Mr. Ho Van Toan (resident of Huc Nghi village), dust causes him to suffer from respiratory and eye diseases.
The road has been damaged for a long time, people have petitioned many times but it has not been completely resolved. When reflecting, they only bring a few trucks of soil and rocks to fill it for formality, and soon it will be damaged again" - Mr. Toan said with an indignant voice.
According to people on both sides of the road, in the rainy season, the road turns into mud, students go to school like "going to the field"; in the sunny season, dust flies white in the sky, people have to water in front of their houses to reduce pollution.
The main reason is that heavy trucks run continuously, coupled with the fact that the road repair contractor is unfinished. They scrape off the road surface and leave it there, causing potholes to appear densely. If it were done completely immediately, it would not reach this level" - Mr. Toan added.
According to records of Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, on the route from Dakrong suspension bridge to La Lay intersection (intersection with National Highway 15D to La Lay International Border Gate), many road sections are potholes, interspersed with puddles of stagnant water. The road surface is plowed and jagged, posing a risk of traffic accidents, especially at night or when it rains.
Request functional agencies to soon rectify
According to Mr. Ho Van Phong - Vice Chairman of Ta Rut Commune People's Committee (Quang Tri province), the degraded condition of the road has seriously affected the lives of local people.
“The large traffic volume is one of the main reasons. In the rainy season, it is muddy, and in the sunny season, it is dusty, directly affecting people's lives and health,” Mr. Phong said.
Commune leaders said that the most heavily affected area is Huc Nghi village with more than 50 households and village 37 with 47 households. Worryingly, Huc Nghi Elementary School is also located on this route, with more than 100 students going to school every day, posing a potential safety risk.
We request functional agencies to soon repair the road section from Km270 to the center of Ta Rut commune, in order to ensure traffic safety and stabilize people's lives," said the Vice Chairman of Ta Rut Commune People's Committee.
On the route, a number of periodic repair projects are currently being implemented by Road Management Zone II as the investor. Some sections are assigned to a contractor in Da Nang to construct and repair. However, although road surface has been scraped, the contractor stopped construction for unknown reasons. This has caused many sections to fall into unfinished condition, becoming black spots of dust and traffic unsafety.
Answering Lao Dong Newspaper, a representative of Road Management Zone II said that the unit is carrying out procedures to terminate the contract with the weak contractor, then organize a re-bid to continue construction, in order to overcome the prolonged degradation situation.
While the procedures are still being implemented, people here still have to brace themselves to live with the messy, polluted road. While the worry of accidents is always present on each degraded road section.
