SƠN LA — Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng on Friday urged for more efforts to create a better life for people who had to relocate for the construction of the Sơn La Hydropower Plant in the northwestern province of Sơn La.

Sơn La Hydropower Plant is one of the key national projects to supply electricity for socio-economic development, industrialisation and modernisation. It went into operation in 2012 and has also played a significant role in preventing floods during the rainy season and providing water in the dry season for the country’s northwest region. 

Fifteen years since the project started, a total of 20,340 households from three provinces of Sơn La, Điện Biên and Lai Châu have been relocated to make lands for the plant’s construction, said a report delivered to Dũng and other Government officials during their working trip to the province on March 15-16 to review the results of the relocation plan.

The relocated people were all offered new houses in planned residential areas with synchronised infrastructure.

However, many problems remain unresolved.

Despite some improvements in terms of living standards and average income, people are still struggling with many difficulties, the number of poor household remain high while those who had escaped poverty risk falling back into the poverty trap.

A majority of people are farmers without professional training. As a result, the ratio of labourers shifting from agriculture to other jobs likes services, home craft or tourism remains low while the building of programmes to support their job shifting has been slow-paced.

Secretary of Sơn La Province’s Party Committee Hoàng Văn Chất attributed the problems to the fact that a planned project to stabilise inhabitants’ lives and boost socio-economic development of the relocation zone has not been approved.

He, therefore, asked for the Government’s quick approval of the project.

Acknowledging the importance of the project, Deputy PM Dũng asked all related ministries, sectors and localities accelerate its compilation to submit it to the Government.

He asked the three provinces of Sơn La, Điện Biên and Lai Châu to continue reviewing the socio-economic development of their localities to carry out appropriate economic restructuring, develop economic zones and key products to serve as the driving force for development.

Earlier on Thursday, Dũng visited and offered gifts to households in relocated Tú Quỳnh Hamlet in Yên Châu District, Sơn La Province. — VNS