No major fuss over Hanoi's huge dam project
By Roger Mitton
 

HANOI - SIX months ago, the people of Ta Sai, a tree-shaded village nestled by the majestic Black River in mountainous north-western Vietnam, were ordered to pack up and leave.

Trucks took the residents, mostly ethnic minority subsistence farmers and fishermen, up a hillside several kilometres away. They were left at a stony, treeless site with no water or electricity and told to carve out new lives.

'We were given money to build new homes, but if we wanted a decent place, it would cost a bit more than what the government gave us,' said Mr Luong Van Dieu, one of the village headmen.

Although many miss their leafy riverside village with its stilt houses, the Ta Sai people consider themselves lucky.

Mr Dieu, of the Tai minority, said: 'We only had to move a short distance, so we are still on our ancestral lands. Others have had to move far away. That is sad.'

Indeed, the Vietnamese authorities have moved some villagers up to 100km away and resettled them among unfamiliar new communities.

About 95,000 people in all are being evicted to clear the area for the construction of a massive 215m-high dam across the Black River near Son La, 340km north-west of Hanoi.

The hydroelectric plant will be South-east Asia's biggest and will generate 10.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, about a sixth of Vietnam's burgeoning energy needs.

Professor Pham Phu, a power expert at Ho Chi Minh City's University of Technology, said: 'Right now, we are importing electricity from China because we have a serious shortage. So, we need to build the Son La dam to satisfy our energy demands.'

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has taken a personal interest in making sure the project starts generating electricity on time in 2012. He has sealed a US$280 million (S$405 million) deal with France's Alstom Hydro to provide the turbines and generators.

Interestingly, unlike similar projects in the region such as the Three Gorges dam in China, Nam Theun 2 in Laos and Bakun in East Malaysia, Son La has evoked little international attention.

Part of the reason is that Vietnam is building it without any outside funding or construction assistance. And doing so with quiet, almost clandestine, efficiency.

Bothersome diplomats and snooping journalists are kept away from the remote river valley that is home to many of Vietnam's colourful ethnic minorities.

The Tai, Hmong, Kho Mu, Giay and Khan who live there have their own languages and cultural values.

Relocating them presented Vietnam with a thankless task that could easily spark global outrage if handled badly - just when a more outward-looking Hanoi wanted support for its bid to play a bigger international role by joining the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations Security Council.

But Vietnam has handled the task with remarkable aplomb.

Already, about 80,000 people have been resettled in a massive, but low-profile operation that has caused surprisingly few incidents.

Mr Nguyen Thai Hung, relocation director for Muong La district, near the dam site, said: 'We still have another 2,000 households to move, and we are trying to encourage them to go peacefully.'

The encouragement is practical: hard cash, new homes and the promise of better roads, schools, water, electricity and health care.

Most villagers concede, often grudgingly, that relocation has improved their living standards.

Many who lived in cramped areas by the river bank now reside in larger communities with better facilities, more convenient transportation and bigger houses.

Naturally, the fact that the first batches to move were largely satisfied had a ripple effect and made others relocate more willingly.

But, of course, there were gripes.

Mr Dieu's Ta Sai villagers nurse grievances over the way bureaucratic mismanagement led to their being moved before their new location was ready.

Even now, they have no running water or electricity. Their children have to travel 25km along a dirt track to school because the promised new road and school have not materialised.

With no public transportation, many children just stay home.

After being resettled on dry uplands where they cannot fish or grow rice, their parents do much the same as they await the day the lake fills up and Ta Sai is again a waterfront village.

In the meantime, they depend on handouts from the government, which promised them 20kg of rice every month for two years.

'Now, they say they can only give us 18kg because the price of rice has risen,' said Mr Dieu. 'So, we are unhappy at these broken promises.'

Resettlement officer Hung understands the concerns. He said: 'Our administrative procedures are cumbersome, and the compensation and relocation policies are not always consistent or transparent.'

Still, there have been nice gestures.

For example, the religious customs of many minorities forbid graves being dug up or submerged under water.

This sensitive predicament was resolved when local officials helped fund a special ritual that involved villagers giving offerings to the spirits of the dead for three days and nights.

So overall, Vietnam has managed the mass relocation better than expected.

Despite understandable complaints, most villagers now look forward to a brighter future.

Mr Dieu said: 'We are all hoping that when the dam is finished and we get water and electricity and a new road, our lives will be better