Lack of pipelines, water plants in Cao Bang have to wait for completion

Billion-dollar factory cannot supply water even though it has been completed

According to the actual records of the reporter, the above clean water project was approved by the People's Committee of Cao Bang province in May 2021, with the Cao Bang Economic Zone Management Board as the investor, with a total cost of 50 billion VND.

Since the end of 2023, the investor has completed the construction, this project is responsible for providing domestic water for people in Tra Linh town and the Tra Linh International Border Gate area. However, due to many different reasons, the project has not been put into use, there is a risk of wasting investment resources.

The clean water plant was built in about 1 year, at the end of 2023, the project was completed and installed and has been inspected and accepted by a professional agency. Currently, the investor is completing procedures to be able to exploit and operate the plant. The water quality is good, but due to the degraded pipeline system, many losses, and unsafety, it is impossible to connect to the new level I pipeline. Therefore, from February 20, 2025, the factory informed people to stop supplying water, the town residents are having to use well water and surface water.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Ly Quoc Khanh - Deputy Head of the Management Board of Cao Bang Economic Zone - said: "The clean water plant project has been completed but is not eligible for exploitation due to the lack of a level II and III pipeline network, on the other hand, some areas do not have environmental licenses because they have not been allocated land, causing difficulties for investors".

According to Mr. Khanh, the land allocation procedures are delayed due to the need to revise the cadastral map, and have now been completed and are waiting for the land allocation decision. After being allocated the land, the investor will implement the next steps to put the project into operation.

"The Provincial People's Committee has approved the investment in a level II pipeline and a water supply network for border gates, towns and neighboring communes with a budget of about 14.5 billion VND. The project is expected to start construction at the end of the second quarter of 2025 and supply water by the end of 2025. Currently, the unit is actively completing procedures to speed up the progress" - Mr. Khanh added.

A series of related problems

The fact that the Tra Linh Town Clean Water Plant has been completed but is slow to be put into use and the water supply is not yet synchronous has made many local people upset. In August 2024, about 100 households in this border town were in a situation of irony when they had normal domestic water before, but when the Tra Linh clean water plant was completed, the water was suddenly cut off.

According to households, they used to use domestic water provided by an old construction, then the new factory investor informed them that the water cutting was to release and connect clean water from the newly built factory to see if the existing pipeline had been broken, punctured, or leaking water. From having water for normal use to now, hundreds of households in Tra Linh town have struggled to get well water for use, even using river and stream water.

"We hope the project will soon be able to supply water again, but there is no water, life is very difficult, for several months the pipeline has not been able to drop any water, then every few days it is cut, making it difficult for us people to know how to make ends meet" - Ms. Hoang Thi Hoa (Tra Linh town) shared.