High waves, devastated coast
In village 6, Trieu Co commune, the coast was severely eroded after floods. The continuous waves hit the shore, causing the concrete floor of the fishing port to collapse more than 20cm thick, exposing deep frog breaths that had eaten close to the mainland.
Not only the fishing port, the nearly 400m long coastline is also being strongly eroded. The wild pineapple beds that were deeply rooted and held the soil have now been knocked down and left with no roots. The well system and seawater pipeline serving the aquaculture area above were also damaged by waves.
People, local authorities and Trieu Van Border Guard Station used sandbags and rocks to temporarily reinforce the area. However, each big wave, the sand sinks and is swept out to sea.
Next to Trieu Co commune, since the end of September, unusual landslides in the aquaculture area in My Thuy village have occurred seriously. Many snail and shrimp ponds of the people in this village have disappeared due to landslides, people are not only worried about losing their livelihoods, but also worried about their houses being affected. People believe that sand dredging activities for the construction of the My Thuy Port Area project may be one of the reasons for the increase in landslides.
At Trung Giang community beach (Ben Hai commune), more than 120m of embankment near the edge of the waves were broken, with concrete and paving stones lying around; about 100m more are at risk of landslides. The beach project belonging to the 84 billion VND tourism infrastructure project, which has just been received and not yet put into use, is damaged. Not only the construction, the poplar forest along the coast of Ha Loi Trung village (Ben Hai commune) was also severely damaged. The waves encroached 20 - 30m deep, creating a 1 - 2m high landslide wall that caused many poplar trees to be uprooted and left bare.
Proposal to have a plan to overcome landslides
According to the People's Committee of Trieu Co commune, coastal erosion in the locality has occurred for many years, but the recent flood has caused more seriousness, directly affecting the fishing wharf and aquaculture areas of the people. The locality recommends investing in a solid sea dike system soon so that people can feel secure at sea.
Mr. Cap Xuan Ta - Chairman of My Thuy Commune People's Committee said that the coastal area affected by the landslide is within the scope of site clearance for the My Thuy Port Area project. The commune government is conducting damage statistics and mobilizing construction enterprises to provide immediate support to affected households. In the long term, the commune will coordinate with relevant units to speed up procedures for land acquisition and compensation to stabilize people's lives soon.
Faced with the complicated coastal erosion, Mr. Nguyen Van Hong, Chairman of Ben Hai Commune People's Committee, said that the locality has prepared a report to superiors on the erosion, and at the same time proposed to allocate capital to urgently repair Trung Giang community beach. As for the poplar hill in Ha Loi Trung village, the immediate plan proposed by the commune is to plant more poplar trees to overcome the situation.
In reality, after floods, coastal erosion in Quang Tri not only destroyed infrastructure but also washed away "green shields" such as wild pineapple and poplar forests. If there is no comprehensive solution soon, the risk of losing land and livelihoods for coastal people will increasingly exist.
