On March 25, 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinated with the People's Committee of Dien Bien province to organize the groundbreaking ceremony of the Nam La reservoir project in Muong Nhe district - the westernmost point of the country.
This project has a total investment of more than 500 billion VND and is expected to create momentum for economic development in remote border areas. This is also one of the meaningful projects that started construction on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory.
However, it was not until October 2024 that important items began construction due to land clearance problems. According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Hiep - Director of the Project Management Board for Agricultural Works and Rural Development of Dien Bien province (investor), site clearance is facing many difficulties because most of the land of the people here has not been granted land use rights.
"The investor has coordinated very closely with Muong Nhe district to make efforts in determining the origin of the land to serve the land acquisition work. However, when implementing, it was discovered that nearly 100% of households had not been granted land use right certificates, there were cases where 2-3 people claimed that a piece of land was theirs, so determination and counting took a lot of time" - Mr. Hiep said.
On April 15, present at the Nam La reservoir construction site, speaking with a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan - Commander of the project said that the total volume of project items has reached about 30%.
"Since October 2024, immediately after the site was handed over, contractors have mobilized people and machinery to focus on speeding up the construction progress. Up to now, the basic items have met the required progress, the total project volume has reached about 30%" - Mr. Tuan said.
Regarding the difficulties in implementing the project, the contractor's representative said that the current supply of stone and construction sand does not meet the requirements according to the construction progress.
"The source of stone and sand is very difficult, we have to deposit money in advance to be supplied at very high prices, more than 700,000/block of stone and 750 thousand/block of sand. However, many suppliers are still unable to meet the requirements" - Mr. Tran Anh Tuan added.
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper reporter, Mr. Bui Minh Hai - Secretary of Muong Nhe District Party Committee said that although the project implementation encountered many initial difficulties, up to now, the investor and contractor have coordinated very well with the locality. This project has been built to meet the expectations of the government and people in the district for many years.
When this project is completed, it will create opportunities to change land use purposes, in line with the "no resting land" policy being implemented by the locality. That is also an opportunity to sustainably develop agricultural crops and short-term and long-term industrial crops.
"In addition, when the project is completed, it is expected to change the landscape and environment, creating space to promote the tourism potential of the extreme western region of the Fatherland" - Mr. Bui Minh Hai said.
The Nam La Reservoir Project belongs to the Ban Phu - Nam La Reservoir Cluster Project in Dien Bien province, approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development from August 2023 with a total investment of 998 billion VND. Of which, Nam La reservoir in Muong Nhe district has a total investment of 509.372 billion VND.
The goal of the project is to provide irrigation water and create a source for about 1,800 hectares of agricultural land. Of which, 200 hectares of rice were irrigated for 2 crops, 1,600 hectares of industrial crops were moisturized; creating a source of domestic water for about 25,000 people.
