Since the floods in October 2025, the lives of people in Lang Chut village have gradually stabilized. Affected households have been arranged housing, basic living is basically guaranteed, and part of production has been restored.
However, the large amount of sand silted up after the flood is still an existing problem, directly affecting living space, production and people's infrastructure.
According to statistics, floods have swept away more than 100,000m3 of golden sand into the Chut Village area, estimated value of about 30-35 billion VND. This is considered a resource that can be exploited to both overcome the consequences of natural disasters and create additional resources to support people.
Mr. Vu Xuan Thuy - Chairman of Van Ban Commune People's Committee said that the locality is currently focusing on stabilizing people's lives after natural disasters, while sand collection has only been partially implemented.
According to Mr. Thuy, the commune's goal is to overcome the consequences of storms and floods. With a very large volume of alluvial sand, it cannot be discarded, but it is necessary to organize reasonable collection.
This process is being studied in the direction of bidding or seeking the opinion of the province to designate specific contractors. The collection cost is estimated at over 10 billion VND, while if auctioning about 100,000m3 of sand, it can collect about 30 billion VND. After deducting expenses, the rest will be paid to the State budget," Mr. Thuy said.
Chairman of Van Ban Commune People's Committee added that the sand collection and auction plan has been initially agreed upon between the Department of Agriculture and Environment and the Department of Finance when working with the locality.
If implemented according to the process of forming a mine point for auction, it will take a lot of time, not suitable for the actual situation. In fact, in Trinh Tuong commune, since storm No. 3 in 2024, it has not been possible to implement this direction," Mr. Thuy cited.
On the morning of January 14, in an exchange with Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Luu Duc Cuong - Head of Mineral and Environmental Management Department (Department of Agriculture and Environment of Lao Cai province) said that the Department of Finance has submitted to the People's Committee of Lao Cai province a plan to overcome the consequences of natural disasters, combined with recovering alluvial sand in the Chut Village area.
According to Mr. Cuong, up to this point, the locality has only collected and gathered about 10,000m3 of sand. The collection of the entire remaining volume must wait for the disaster recovery plan to be approved by the province, as a basis for allocating funds and synchronously deploying.
Explaining the reason for not organizing businesses to survey, collect and then auction immediately, Mr. Cuong said that the alluvial sand area is currently not in the mineral mine planning. If implemented according to the mine exploitation process, it is mandatory to organize exploration and reserve assessment, this process may take up to half a year to complete.
In case the province approves the plan and arranges funds, the collection can be deployed immediately. After the collection and gathering are completed, auctions will be organized according to regulations," Mr. Cuong said.
The Head of the Mineral and Environment Management Department of Lao Cai province also said that the collection is also related to residential areas. According to regulations, mineral mines must be centrally planned, and cannot overlap with people's residential land.
The issuance of mining licenses must be consistent with mineral planning, while this area does not have a plan. Therefore, the plan to overcome natural disasters, combined with collecting and recovering alluvial sand, and then organizing auctions is considered the most reasonable and appropriate in the current conditions," Mr. Cuong affirmed.
