Lack of playground, excess headquarters
In Tan Lam Huong commune (Ha Tinh city), after merging from 3 old communes, the 2 old People's Committee headquarters are still vacant. In the afternoon, people took advantage of it as a volleyball court for adults. "We want to convert it into a playground, a skill class for children, but we are stuck in regulations on public asset management, so we cannot" - Mr. Nguyen Van Ninh - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee - shared.
In Luu Vinh Son commune (Thach Ha district, Ha Tinh), 3 communes merged 1, leaving 2 old headquarters, 1 medical station and 7 unused village cultural houses. Meanwhile, the whole commune only has three private kindergartens, each facility keeping less than 20 children. Parents are willing to pay fees for their children to play and learn life skills, but no location is qualified. The more you look at abandoned offices, the more heartbreaking it is, said Mr. Tran Ba Hoanh - Chairman of the commune.
Similar situations occurred in many communes of Quang Binh and Quang Tri. Tan Ninh commune (Quang Ninh district, Quang Binh) has more than 1,000 children but they do not have a single chain. In the mountainous areas of Quang Tri, facilities for children are almost absent, while children still gather on the banks of streams, rivers, and roadsides every day - locations with potential accident risks.
It is worth mentioning that a series of communes in the North Central region are in a state of surplus headquarters and public facilities after the merger. However, due to regulations on converting public asset functions, these works have been "shelved" and abandoned for many years, while the need for use is extremely urgent.
In Thanh Hoa province - the locality with the largest number of merged communes in the country - this story is even more obvious. Quang Phuc Commune, Quang Xuong District has almost no true playground for children. Meanwhile, after the merger of Quang Vong and Quang Phuc communes, there are still many headquarters, schools, and public land in the area that have been abandoned for many years, causing great waste.
"The commune has up to 4 public real estate facilities with a total area of over 10 hectares that are abandoned. If we convert the function, take advantage of a part of the area to make a playground for children, and call on children from hometown to contribute to the construction, it will be very practical and meaningful" - a resident commented.
In Nghi Son town, after merging coastal wards and communes, a series of health stations are no longer in use due to overlapping areas. Instead of renovating it into a community center and playground for children, many places have been closed and abandoned for many years.
According to statistics, after the arrangement of administrative units in the period of 2019-2021, the whole province of Thanh Hoa has more than 500 vacant headquarters and public land, mainly commune-level headquarters, schools, medical stations, and village cultural houses. It is expected that after the upcoming administrative merger, the number of surplus public offices will increase sharply.
Stadium becomes... BOT
The situation is even worse in Vinh City (Nghe An), which used to have a good ward stadium system, but now many places have been turned into business areas with toll collection.
In Le Loi ward, 5,000m2 of land was once planned to be a green park and sports field, but now most of the area has been turned into a mini soccer field operated by the private sector, charging a fee of 250,000-350,000 VND/hour. "Before, it was the ward's yard, now my child wants to play soccer and has to pay for it" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, a parent lamented.
It is worth mentioning that this land was built contrary to the planning of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee. Instead of football fields, managers, stands... there are utility service houses, swimming pools and ancillary works - serving business. Although the Vinh City Urban Order Management Team had drawn up a record of violations and requested demolition (since 2019), the project still exists.
In Hung Phuc ward, a ward stadium of more than 5,000m2 was also rented to businesses since 2011. After being concluded as a violation, the enterprise still stubbornly refused to return the land. The yard was fenced off, abandoned, overgrown with grass, the yard foundation sank, and children around could not access it.
"We have invited businesses to work many times, but have not achieved any results. While children around here have no place to play during their summer vacation, said Mr. Nguyen Quoc Truong, Chairman of Hung Phuc Ward.
Lack of cultural and sports institutions at the grassroots level, forces children to go to potentially dangerous places such as riverbanks, roadsides, deep streams, etc. Accidents and tragic drowning still recur every summer. This situation shows inadequacies in public asset management, cultural institutional planning and the way the government prioritizes the development of children today.
