Đắk Re hydropower plant suspended for destroying forest

April 01, 2016 - 15:30

Authorities of Quảng Ngãi Province has asked a trillionsof đồng-worth hydropower plant to be suspended from construction as it was destroying the adjacent protection forest area.

Authorities of Quảng Ngãi Province have asked the Government to suspend operations of a hydropower plant worth trillions of đồng for illegal deforestation.— Photo nld.vn

QUẢNG NGÃI (VNS) — Authorities of Quảng Ngãi Province have asked the Government to suspend operations of a hydropower plant worth trillions of đồng for illegal deforestation.

The Đắk Re hydropower plant, funded by Thiên Tân Co., was granted a construction permit on February 2 this yeas.

The VNĐ2.3-trillion (US$102.2 million)  project planned to cover an area of 176 ha over Kon Tum and Quảng Ngãi provinces, but the investor illegally chopped down and damaged a massive area of forest stretching nearly 11,000 sq.m, according to a report by the Quảng Ngãi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DoARD).

The affected zone overlapped with a DoARD forest recovery project in Ba Tơ District.

Ba Tơ Western Forest Management Board Director Nguyễn Trọng said the power plant’s workers destroyed the trees without permission from local authorities.

Thiên Tân so far managed to build a road of about 700m into the forest to the construction site. It chopped down about 1,580 Erythrophleum fordii and Senna siamea trees.

The municipal People’s Committee asked the company to suspend construction immediately until the authorities finished their assessment on the damage caused by the investor. — VNS    

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