A speech by Tran Van Hai, head of the project management unit of Song Tranh Hydropower Project, deepens the wound when he calls for the people “to sacrifice (their benefits) for the hydropower plant” in an interview with Tuoi Tre this week.

In the same chorus with Hai is Dr. Ngo Thi Lu of the Institute of Geophysics, who scolds the people as “lacking understanding, and rushing to take flight with all cattle and belongings at the mere tremor,” according to the paper.

Behind these viewpoints could be seen the huge investment of trillions of Vietnam dong that the investor has poured into the project, and the indifference to the safety of the people. In case the power plant cannot be put into operation, the project owner will incur huge losses. But, the economic prevalence over the safety of thousands of human lives as reflected by Hai is by no means acceptable under any circumstances. The public indignation, therefore, is understandable.

In the aforesaid interview with Tuoi Tre, the project management unit director asserts that recent earthquakes around the dam are within the project owner’s calculations, and “we are quite assured about the safety.” Hai therefore calls for the people’s understanding, saying “we are willing to share (difficulties) with the people, and expect that the people are also ready to share with us.”

Vietnamnet says the people should only sacrifice their benefits for the common interest, and ponders how the people could make sacrifices when all benefits belong to the project owner. “Who will share with and sacrifice for the people living around Song Tranh Hydropower Plant when their homes are crumpling, threatening their lives and properties?” questions the news website.

Sai Gon Tiep Thi points out that in reality the people have made great sacrifices over the past time.

“Residents in Quang Nam Province’s Bac Tra My District (where the hydropower plant is located) have had to leave behind their fertile land along the river where they had lived for ages and moved to resettlement zones, which is already an act of sacrifice,” says the paper.

Feedbacks on Tuoi Tre show readers’ vexation over the project owner’s viewpoint.

“For a long time, the people have shared difficulties with the hydropower plant, and what they need now being safety and a stable life have not been ensured,” says a reader. Another questions why only the people are told to make sacrifices for the hydropower plant, but not the opposite side, and yet another reader warns that “hundreds of thousands of human lives are being threatened every hour let alone every minute, and please let the misfortune not come.”

With the same voice, Vietnamnet criticizes the project owner’s viewpoint as unsuitable, saying “the hydropower plant must be sacrificed for the benefits as well as the safety of tens of thousands of people.” A leader of Quang Nam Province also admits on the online newspaper that the project has caused public grievances, and “we will propose the central Government that the project be abolished to ease the people’s sufferings.”

Local media has also unveiled how the investor has been ignorant in developing the project and how it has misled the public on the project’s preparations.

While the project owner has lately repeated that tremors triggered by water storage at the reservoir are within its calculations, documents reveal that all its calculations are wrong since the environment impact statement for the project has been carelessly conducted.

In the statement prepared by the Institute of Geophysics in 2005, it is said that the water storage will not trigger quakes, says Tuoi Tre. Any tremors that could occur would be due to the activation of the seismic fault line in the region. Reality, however, has proved that such calculations are wrong.

Nguoi Lao Dong says the project owner is now paying the dear price for its indifference. When preparing the project, the owner did not consult relevant ministries and agencies on the possible earthquakes triggered by water storage, while the Institute of Geophysics failed to conduct the study in a prudent manner, according to the paper.

In a commentary, Sai Gon Tiep Thi says the people downstream the dam are leading an abnormal life, though they never choose that way of living.

“The people can hardly digest the advice of making sacrifices, since they cannot share difficulties with those people who have turned their life upside down. They have made sacrifices, and if they continue to do so, who will benefit from the project?” questions the paper.

The indifference to the safety of the people is really a crime, asserts the paper.

Source: SaigonTimes