One notable project in Kon Tum Province is the construction of an anti-erosion embankment along Dak Pne River in Kon Ray District. Despite receiving the greenlight from the provincial People’s Committee in 2008 plus some adjustments in 2010, this 3.7-kilometer project, with a total investment of VND134 billion (US$5.7 million), still cannot be launched after 12 years.
A Kien, Head of Kon Skoi Village (in Dak Ruong Commune of Kon Ray District), complained that the section of Dak Pne River passing his village is tens of meters wide and has caused serious erosion on both riverbanks. Now that the river has expanded by 10 meters for the past 5 years, many houses are now only 5 meters away from it. Residents are living in anxiety of their own land being gradually taken away by this river.
Vice Chairman of Kon Ray District People’s Committee Nguyen Van Thuy informed that the anti-erosion embankment project along Dak Pne River is vital and urgent to local inhabitants. It is now critical to protect the life and accommodation of 350 households here as well as state assets to serve the public. However, the project is still unable to kick off due to financial challenges.
Similarly, in Dak Lak Province, hundreds of socio-economic development projects are seriously behind schedule, causing harms to residents there.
For instance, the construction project of Hung Vuong Road in Buon Ma Thuot City was approved in 2019 to carry out from 2020-2024. After nearly 2 years, this 1.7-kilometer project, with an investment of over VND100 billion ($4.27 million), has just finished a small stage. Its contractor has withdrawn, leaving the work in disarray.
Nguyen Van H from Tan Lap Ward of Buon Ma Thuot City complained that this project has lowered the entrance to his house by nearly 1m, making it extremely difficult to enter or exit the house. In addition, the messy construction site results is local flooding when it rains or dusty air when the sun shines.
Chairman of Buon Ma Thuot City People’s Committee reported that the project has finished 12 percent, but has to stop now due to problems in land clearance as some residents are still not willing to donate their land for road building.
More worrisome is the construction project of Yen Ngua Reservoir in Cu Ewi Commune of Cu Kuin District. With a total investment of more than VND305 billion ($13 million), the project is planned to finish by 2022. However, until now, although the investment has increased to VND468 billion ($20 million), it is still greatly behind schedule. Notably, many land lots have been retrieved, but their former owners have not received their compensations yet.
Nguyen Dinh Thin, Deputy Director of the Management Board for this project informed that as the expenses have risen, the project is facing financial challenges now and late in delivering compensation. His organization has proposed to the provincial People’s Committee to allocate more money to complete this task.
Statistics from the Dak Lak Province Department of Planning and Investment, in 2022, the total public investment of the province is over VND5.1 trillion ($217.6 million), but the disbursement rate only reaches 10 percent of the plan. The other 181 non-budget state-capital projects are behind schedule as well.
